From the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation: Please join in solidarity this holiday season, and help to replant olive trees in occupied Palestine.
Knowing that the common people in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem continue to suffer under occupation and displacement, we are reminded that Mary and Joseph, huddling in a nook, were refugees under Roman occupation, and that they had traveled from Nazareth to Bethlehem, where Joseph’s family lived. Just as they lived in fear of a foreign occupying power two thousand years ago, sadly the Palestinians live in fear of the Israeli occupation, which imposes apartheid and takes their land. Often times, their olive trees are ripped out in an effort to displace them from their land.
Help to plant so that the children of many future generations might enjoy and be sustained by a gift of hope, a gift calling for a just and lasting peace.
Semester of Service 2011 launches on the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service (January 17, 2011). This year, Youth Service America (YSA) Grants will provide approximately $500,000 to nearly 500 schools and organizations to lead Semester of Service projects.
Semester of Service projects address meaningful community problems and their root causes – problems such as childhood obesity, hunger & homelessness, illiteracy, natural disasters, and environmental degradation. Semester of Service incorporates the practice of sustained service over a period of significant “duration and intensity” (typically at least 70 hours over several weeks or months), in order to provide enough time for students to acquire the knowledge and skills needed to understand and impact challenging community problems.
YSA encourages educators and service organizations to participate by launching and culminating efforts for a Semester of Service on significant national days of service:
- The King Day of Service (January 17, 2011)
- Global Youth Service Day (April 15-17, 2011
- 9/11 Day of Service (September 11, 2011)
- The King Day of Service (January 16, 2012)
In a successful Semester of Service, students follow the IPARD/C stages of the service-learning process:
- Investigation
- Preparation & Planning
- Action
- Reflection
- Demonstration/Celebration
Educators wishing to plan a Semester of Service may obtain resources through YSA including:
The Semester of Service Strategy Guide [PDF] and Semester of Service Classroom Poster [PDF] are available and provide detailed, step-by-step instructions on how to develop and implement meaningful service and learning experiences using the IPARD/C process. Other resources are also available.
YSA provides a variety of grants (applications available), planning tools, training, and technical assistance to help Semester of Service participants plan, lead, and implement high-impact service-learning programs.
Behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit; she will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” – Matthew 1:20-21
From the Los Angeles Times via the Press Democrat: Man repays jobless benefits, 46 years later
LOS ANGELES — California’s budget crisis has eased a bit, thanks to a South Carolina man grateful to the state for helping him 46 years ago.
Dennis R. Ferguson wrote a check for $10,000 to the state treasury Nov. 23 as “repayment for what California did for me” when he was laid off from his aerospace engineering job in 1964.
Ferguson, a 74-year-old retired computer programmer who lives in the Atlantic coastal community of Fripp Island, S.C., said the four months’ worth of unemployment benefits he collected after losing his job with Douglas Aircraft allowed him to re-train for a new career in computers.
State Treasurer Bill Lockyer said Ferguson’s money will be spent on schools, as required by state law.
That’s appropriate, Lockyer said, “because there’s a lesson to be learned here about what it means to have a sense of shared sacrifice and commitment to the common good.”
Ferguson was 26 and living in a rundown, $25-a-week West Los Angeles motel when he collected state aid. Officials of the state Employment Development Department estimate that his total benefits during the four months totaled about $1,100.
Ferguson said he wanted to show his appreciation for the assistance by adding “interest” to his repayment. He said he picked $10,000 because it is a “nice round number.”
“Anyone who is helped out when they are down ought to give something back, especially now that California has budget problems,” he told state officials.
The jobless benefits helped him go back to school, Ferguson said. He enrolled in computer programming at the now-defunct International Tabulating Institute in Los Angeles.
According to Ferguson, the school had one IBM 1440 series computer with 4K of memory that was shared by 10 students. That room-size data processor sold for $90,000 at the time.
But Ferguson learned programming on it, creating 21 programs during the three-month class. He earned an A grade and a certificate of completion.
After that, Ferguson went to work as a computer operator for Belmont Savings and Loan in Seal Beach. A year later, he landed a better-paying job as a programmer at Honeywell in Los Angeles.
Later, Ferguson worked in the Atlanta area before settling in South Carolina.
In the note to Sacramento officials that accompanied his check, Ferguson thanked the state for letting him collect unemployment while studying at the storefront computer institute.
“This allowed me to have a great career, and I’ve been ever thankful,” he wrote.
Tom Dresslar, a spokesman for the state treasurer’s office, said Thursday that Ferguson’s check cleared and has been deposited in the public schools fund.
In a statement, Lockyer expressed his appreciation of Ferguson’s gift.
“I hope that as we work together to meet our budget challenges, we keep in mind his act of generosity and the spirit it embodies,” he said.
Reading this story, I was impressed by the real difference a helping hand can make, and the beauty of Mr. Ferguson’s attitude of thankfulness. He provides an excellent example of gentlemanly/gentle-womanly conduct. May he be blessed for his thankfulness.
Today we celebrated the Solemnity of the Holy Name of Jesus (the proper Solemnity of the day according to the Ordo of the Polish National Catholic Church), and the Patronal Feastday of my home parish, Holy Name of Jesus in Schenectady, New York. I wish all my co-workers and fellow faithful many blessings on this special day.
In the words of the old Polish greeting:
Niech będzie pochwalony Jezus Chrystus! Na wieki wieków, amen!
Praised by the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ! Forever and ever, amen!
From the Times-Tribune: Central Diocese of Polish National Catholic Church to welcome new bishop in February
The Central Diocese of the Polish National Catholic Church and its mother cathedral, St. Stanislaus in South Scranton, will welcome a new bishop and pastor on Feb. 1.
Bishop John Mack has served for the past four years as the auxiliary bishop of the Buffalo-Pittsburgh Diocese and has been a pastor in Western Pennsylvania for two decades.
The current bishop of the Central Diocese, the Most Rev. Anthony Mikovsky, was elected Prime Bishop of the church in October, leaving a vacancy at the head of the diocese that stretches from Maryland to New York. Bishop Mack was assigned to take his place at the end of the denomination-wide synod in October.
He will take charge of what he notes is the largest parish and the largest diocese in the denomination.
“It’s quite daunting,” he said.
Bishop Mack was born and raised in the Polish National Catholic Church in the greater Detroit area and attended Savonarola Theological Seminary in Scranton.
Although he has never served as a pastor in the Central Diocese, Bishop Mack said the relatively small size of the Polish National Catholic Church and the frequency with which people throughout the denomination meet at events means he knows at least a few families here.
“Our church, in its smallness, it has a family feel to it because you get to meet people from all around the denomination when you go to various national events,” he said. “You keep these friends through all the years.”
Because Scranton was the site of the denomination’s break from the Roman Catholic Church and its founding as a new church, parishioners here tend to have an acute sense of the denomination’s first principles, including its democratic structure, he said.
“Many of those parishioners, their grandparents, great-grandparents, great-great-grandparents, were some of the founding members of the first parish,” he said, “so there’s a heightened awareness there of the overall purpose of our denomination, why it began.”
As he prepares for his new role and its spiritual challenges, Bishop Mack has also had to adapt to the earthly logistics of a 300-mile move after decades in the same region.
Priests in the Polish National Catholic Church can marry and Bishop Mack and his wife have three children, aged 17, 20 and 23. In his other fatherly role, Bishop Mack was faced with how to let his 17-year-old son stay in the Pittsburgh area with his 23-year-old sister while he finishes high school.
“That’s one of the things that was the most difficult, and I’m still feeling that a bit in the pit of my stomach,” he said.
Having to make such hard family choices can help the denomination’s priests connect to parishioners who face similar struggles.
“You have a great deal of empathy for them when you’ve been through some of the sleepless nights, and little ones, middle-aged ones and teenagers,” he said. “You have, what do they call that, battle experience?”
First reading: Jeremiah 31:10-14
Psalm: Ps 97:1,6,11,12
Epistle: Titus 3:4-7
Gospel: Luke 2:15-20
Because of His mercy
The reality
The world was turned upside down. The shepherds knew of Caesar’s order, a census of the whole world. They saw the clogged roads, people traveling back to their place of birth. People burdened with worry, my job, my business, my sick child, my pregnant wife; and, here we are on the road. It was crazy and scary. Armed robbers lurked in the roads, everyone was competing for a place to stay. The little cow shed, unkept, the owner had no time to clean up or care for the animals, people traveling and looking for a place to stay needed care, there was money to be made. No time to slop out the stalls, bring in fresh hay. The tension, the stress, duties, worries, and cares. All this getting in the way of life.
Into this time of turmoil, God sent His only Son, our Lord Jesus, to provide salvation by mercy alone, without cost, without condition.
To see
Let us take a moment to wonder, to wonder at what the humble shepherds hoped to see in this time of turmoil. They had just seen a vision of heaven, angels streaming down to tell some wonderful news. We know angles, right, all white and glowing, beautiful, dazzling. All the glory and power of the heavenly host. The shepherds said, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this event which the Lord has made known to us.”
Know farming?
How many here have experience with farming? How many were raised on, or worked on a farm. Did you have animals on the farm, donkeys, cattle, sheep, oxen, chicken…? How many have at least visited a farm, or the fair, or a circus?
The picture
You get the picture then. When these humble shepherds arrived after seeing the glory of God, what did they see? What did they smell? Think about the reality of what was going on in that cow shed. Yes, the shepherds got the humble reality of this miracle. When the gospel tells us, “All who heard it were astonished at the report given them by the shepherds,” we can certainly believe that.
I can hear it, Shmuel, Moishe, get this, angels and cows, and the smell of dirty hay and dung with a little baby king, oj vey! What were you shepherds drinking?
To see
Yes, the shepherds were poor and humble people. But, back home their families had a home, a place to lay their heads. They had a table, and even goat’s milk, cheese, and meat. It was these poor shepherds who first saw, who first witnessed the full on reality of God’s humility. The dirty, terrible smelling shed, the rags that bound the baby. A new mother frazzled with worry. Joseph frantic for food, a doctor, a decent place.
What did the shepherds hope to see in the middle of this mess? What did they hope to learn? What could it possibly mean to them?
What they saw was a humility so vast, so great, so filled with the worst the human condition could offer, that it stuck them. They got it, the full representation of the emptying out of God. There wasn’t even a hint of heaven in that place. It was only God, poured out and come to them, a gift without cost or condition.
If
If God had come in a palace, in some regal way, the humble shepherds wouldn’t have been invited. If God came on the clouds of heaven, these humble shepherds would have trembled in fear. If it were only a Gospel short, a little nativity play, the stuff some of the big churches do with people dressed up and real animals, a story, the shepherds could have chosen not to believe. In any of these ways there would have been a cost, a condition. A ticket to get into the palace, the price of fear, the admission to the play.
But
But God came, emptied out and open to them, of lower estate then they, of the lowest place among men. Not a story, not power, nothing quaint, nothing attractive, no glowing virgin mother, no saintly old Joseph, no!
Just the sudden reality of God whose mercy is so vast, so powerful, so available and open to us that He would save us, out of love alone, out of a heart so rich that it asked nothing for itself — a heart that can only give.
What they saw, we have, God poured out and come to us. We have our representation, this manger scene. We have a picture in our heads, and we have our priests among us, who live humbly, bringing us closer to Jesus (and we need more of them because the world desires this message).
God’s humility reaches us, touches us wherever we are. We need not be rich to feel, know, experience, and accept God. We need not have beauty for His beauty to fill us. We can be like those people along the road, scared, humble, poor, worried, sick, sad, a people from every place, from every experience. And, here is Jesus, in a world still turned upside down, come to meet us, offering His mercy, without cost, without condition.
He offered Himself to the humble shepherds. He offered Himself for all of us, emptied out so that we might become rich. All without cost to us and without condition. Come, let us see and know this event which the Lord has made known to us. Amen.