Been to the parish. Very dedicated and loving people. Congratulations on your anniversary! Dwieście lat!!!
SOUTHINGTON, CT — Marilyn Folcik and her sister Arlene Strazzulla looked at a black and white photo pinned on a corkboard inside the Holy Trinity Polish National Catholic Church on Summer Street Thursday afternoon.
Strazzulla leaned into the picture from 1957 to get a better look and then pointed to a little girl among a crowd of people standing outside the church.
“That was me and that was my sister,” she said.
Then she pointed to a man in the back.
“And that was my grandfather,” she added.
Folcik and Strazzulla’s grandfather, John Knapp, along with 16 other men, helped build the church 100 years ago. It opened its doors in July of 1914.
Rev. Joseph Krusienski, pastor of Holy Trinity Polish National Catholic Church, stands with long-time parish members Arlene Strazzulla, left, of Southington, and Marilyn Folcik, right, of Bristol, Thursday, July 24, 2014. The church, located on Summer St. in Southington, is celebrating its 100th year anniversary. | Dave Zajac / Record-JournalIn October, the church and its parishioners will celebrate the anniversary with a Mass followed by a banquet at the Aqua Turf Club.
The first Polish National Catholic Church was formed in 1897 in Scranton, Pa. after many Polish immigrants were longing to have Mass spoken in their native language.
“It was one of the original reasons why we broke away from the Roman Catholic Church,” said Folcik who is also the chairman of the church’s Parish Committee.
“They wanted a Polish-speaking priest,” Strazzulla added.
One of the major differences is that Polish Catholic priests are encouraged to marry and have families. The Holy Trinity Polish National Catholic Church also doesn’t consider the Pope to be infallible. Some of the seven sacraments have also been modified.
Folcik said she remembered her grandfather saying he wanted Polish people to be able to become priests and bishops and wanted Mass in their native language. The desires prompted some Polish members of the Southington community to form their own church.
A short history of the church written by Folcik for the anniversary, says the foundation of the building was “dug by hand by these sixteen men and others.”
After 1958 all Masses were in English.
“Even though ‘Polish’ is in the name of the church, that’s because it’s our heritage,’” said Strazzulla. “But it’s open to all nationalities.”
In April 1944, a fire tore through the building. Strazzulla and Folcik said the cause of the fire was never determined, though many speculate it could have started from a candle left burning from a wedding ceremony earlier in the day.
After the fire, parishioners joined together to salvage the church. Many made donations.
The Rev. Joseph Krusienski, who has been with the church for 43 years, went to the front of the church Thursday to retrieve old receipts from the repair work.
“The main altar, it was $1,050 to repair,” he said pointing to the typewritten receipt.
He added that each stain-glass window had to be replaced, costing $200 apiece.
“Now they’re worth a couple thousand,” Krusienski said.
In the 1960s the church underwent renovations that included new carpeting, paint on the walls, new pews, and new altar railings. A lot of the help came from parishioners who donated money to keep the church going.
The church’s properties, which include a rectory next to the church and a cemetery on Prospect Street in Plantsville, are owned and maintained by the parish. The parish committee and pastor make decisions regarding the properties.
Strazzulla and Folcik, both born and raised in Southington and now nearing or in their 50s, reminisced on the many years they spent in the church. As the third generation, they remembered being baptized, having their communion, confirmation, and even getting married in the church. The church’s 100th year anniversary is important, they said.
“It’s a really warm feeling,” Strazzulla said.
“We’re proud,” Folcik added.
“We’re very proud and honored to carry on what our ancestors started,” Strazzulla said.
“O LORD, my God, you have made me, your servant, king to succeed my father David; but I am a mere youth, not knowing at all how to act. I serve you in the midst of the people whom you have chosen, a people so vast that it cannot be numbered or counted. Give your servant, therefore, an understanding heart to judge your people and to distinguish right from wrong. For who is able to govern this vast people of yours?”
We could make much the same prayer as Solomon did. Lord, give me a wise and understanding heart so that I may serve you in the midst of all those around me. Help me to distinguish between right and wrong so as to follow the path Your Son Jesus has set for me.
Solomon was young and wasn’t quite aware of what God had in store for him. He wasn’t aware of God’s blueprint for his life. Solomon made the right choice. He prayed for wisdom – a wisdom that would allow him to build his life on God’s way, according to God’s plan. This gave him confidence in leading and building as ruler of Israel. He prayed to follow God’s blueprint for his life.
If you’ve ever watched a house being built, you know that blueprints are essential. Blueprints contain plans that tells the builders how to assemble everything so that the home is strong, safe, and of high quality. A good blueprint gives a homeowner assurance that the job will be done properly and provides confidence.
Our call is to follow God’s path for us, and to pledge ourselves to following His blueprint for our lives. His blueprint gives us a guarantee – confidence in all we do in Him. By following His blueprint we will succeed. We will be strong, safe, and have high quality lives that last forever. We have assurance that our lives will be lived properly and with goodness. We will judge rightly, with wisdom, and lead many to come to know, love and serve Him. He created a blueprint for each of us with all we need to live a faithful life, a life that draws us closer to Him and leads others to Him.
Following the Lord’s blueprint for us shows us what to do and how we can do it with joy, peace, and trust in both good and bad times – it allows us to overcome all.
God created a blueprint for our lives. When God designed our lives, when He drew our blueprint, He accounted for everything we need to live in Him and with Him. If we build our lives on Jesus as our foundation, if we follow His blueprint, if we are truly wise, we will, like Solomon, ask correctly. Lord, show us the way! It takes time to learn how to follow His blueprint for us. Like Solomon, we must continue to pray for the wisdom to follow His blueprint for our lives and work daily to live it out, to follow Him and live in Him.
LOWELL — It may be one of Lowell’s best kept secrets, particularly for those who love traditional Polish foods like pierogi (dumplings), golabki (cabbage roll) or kapusta (braised sauerkraut or cabbage with bacon, mushroom and onion).
At a church kitchen and hall on Lakeview Avenue, volunteers who know their way around a dough pressing machine as well as the tricks to producing the perfect cabbage roll lend their talents a few times a month to their church, St. Casimir’s Polish National Catholic Church.
The team effort of these volunteers, who range in age from pre-teens to their 90s, results in hundreds of handmade pierogi and golabki, plus dozens of quarts of kapusta — all later frozen and sold in their parish store.
On Sundays from 11 a.m. to noon, St. Casimir’s Parish Store is open to the public. Pierogi sell for $11 per dozen, kapusta is $6 per quart, golabki $18 a dozen. Proceeds benefit the parish.
“This is a labor of love. We make these the old-fashioned way, with so many steps that it’s time-consuming. People often don’t have the time today,” said Joanne Menzia, who took part in the pierogi assembly line on Tuesday, along with more than a dozen other volunteers.
“People use pierogi as a side dish, a main dish, or even as an appetizer,” said Janice Klimczak. “We sell quite a lot of them.”
The store also sells for $12 each the parish’s new cookbook, A Taste of Heaven, featuring traditional Polish recipes from church members as well as recipes contributed by the church’s many non-Polish members.
Doing his own part in the pierogi assembly line was the pastor, the Rev. Andrzej Tenus, a native of northern Poland who came to the United States in 2006 speaking no English.
Tenus, a former Roman Catholic priest, born in 1972, and a current beekeeper, musician, husband and father of four, went to Pennsylvania to study English for three months at the Polish National Catholic Church headquarters. He was preparing for his new role as a pastor within the Polish National Catholic Church in the U.S.
He did pretty well with the Pennsylvania dialect; then he came to Lowell, where the Boston accent made it a little more difficult, he said, smiling. Today, Tenus has only a trace of a Polish accent, which belies the fact that he’s spoken English for less than a decade.
One of the questions he’s often asked from those outside the community is how the Polish National Catholic Church differs from the Roman Catholic Church. Many find it hard to grasp, he said, how a Catholic church in Lowell is not connected to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston, that its bishops and priests (since 1921) are allowed to marry, and the church is democratic. Its governing board chooses the pastor, controls the finances, and the parish owns its assets.
The Polish National Catholic Church, according to its website, is a Christian denomination formed in 1897 in Scranton, Pa. While it serves the spiritual needs of its members, it also welcomes all people who wish to follow Christ. Today, there are more than 25,000 members in the United States.
The National Catholic movement, which encompasses more than the Polish National Church, resulted from the division in the Christian Church that similarly initiated the Protestant movement. However, according to the St. Patrick Catholic Church website, a National Catholic Church in Rhode Island, it differs from the Protestant divisions in that it kept its belief in the Mass and the priesthood necessary to have the Mass, as well as other Catholic rites and rituals.
The liturgy, especially the contemporary liturgy that Tenus is initiating at St. Casimir, closely resembles that of the Roman Catholic Church. Standing inside St. Casimir’s Church, which was built in 1908 for the then-large Polish community in the city’s Centralville neighborhood, is like standing inside any Roman Catholic Church.
“We keep the same beliefs. The difference is only in the administration level. We’re not connected to Rome,” said Tenus.
Tenus leads a busy life while living next to the church with his wife, Agnes, who followed her husband to the United States three months after his arrival. In Poland, Agnes trained as a nutritionist and professional cook. She creates recipes from her home country and often bakes desserts for home and the church with the honey Tenus harvests from three bee hives located at St. Casimir Cemetery in Pelham. Beekeeping was a hobby Tenus started in Poland and has since resurrected.
Their children, Karina, 13, Jonah, 9, Christoper, 6 and Amelia, 3, consider St. Casimir’s close-knit parish family as surrogate aunts, uncles and grandparents, Tenus said. Likewise, the parishioners love having them here, he added.
Tenus has many ideas to keep the small parish active within and outside the community, including a busy youth group that produces an annual talent show. He emphasizes the importance of welcoming others to their church.
“No matter your background, ethnicity or denomination, we don’t look at that. Just people with good will looking for some place to fill out their souls,” he said. “If you need comfort, a place to pray, this is the place. We do not judge — it’s not up to us to judge.”
Sunday Mass is offered at 10 a.m. at 268 Lakeview Ave., Lowell, followed by fellowship hour. For more information, visit the parish website, call 978-453-0742, or send an E-mail.
He said to them in reply, “Because knowledge of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven has been granted to you, but to them it has not been granted. To anyone who has, more will be given and he will grow rich; from anyone who has not, even what he has will be taken away.”
We are rich. We indeed have a treasure. We have built our Church and our local parish in which we participate in and increase our personal and collective treasure. This treasure makes our lives whole and complete. We are filled with true riches that will not fade away!
Our Holy Church expresses this well in the second verse of the Hymn of the PNCC: Unto Thee we built a temple, Which for us became a treasure, Pouring gifts of faith and courage, In it is our hope forever…
Our treasure gives us hope. Our treasure is all we gain through faith. Our treasure both increases in and is expressed by our weekly worship, prayer, study, and outreach to others.
This treasure is a secret, a mystery, to those without faith in Jesus. Even if they know a little about it, they miss the true meaning of that treasure when they fail to accept it into to their lives, or if they let their faith die because they do not enrich the soil that faith was planted in.
The soil that must be enriched is our faith lives. We need to enrich that soil regularly in worship, prayer, study, and outreach or our lives will grow shallow and our treasure will be scorched away. We need to pay attention and protect against neglecting our soil or the weeds of the world will take over and choke out our faith.
In the Holy Church, filled by the Holy Spirit, we worship, pray, study, and reach out. Our treasure grows and we become rich.
The treasure we possess and that grows day-to-day, week-to-week, and year-to-year by worship, prayer, study, and outreach is our eternal loving relationship with God. The secret of the kingdom of heaven is that God’s kingdom is a never-ending place of love, forgiveness, and mutual support. It is knowledge that we receive God’s free gift of love – grace – and that if we cooperate with that grace our lives will be enriched, we will advance into greater holiness.
Our treasure comes from the free choice we have made for God. The first disciples had that choice – to follow Jesus or to stay behind, to stay on the path with Him or to fall away. We have chosen to: “Love the Lord our God with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our mind.”
The task ahead, our work, is to increase our treasure. Let us till the soil of our lives with worship, prayer, study, and outreach. Ask for Jesus’ grace of increase. Let us be very greedy for His treasure alone.
“Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.”
Our children’s bulletin this week has a puzzle with the following statement and question:
Sometimes you feel tired. Sometimes you feel as if people expect too much of you. When you feel like this, Jesus has some special words for you. What are Jesus’ words? _ _ _ _ to _ _, all you who _ _ _ _ _ and are _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _, and I will _ _ _ _ you _ _ _ _.
Can we find rest in Jesus when we labor and are burdened, when life itself seems to be throwing bad things at us? Jesus says so (and of course He’s God), but it seems very hard to find this rest. St. Augustine makes an interesting statement:
And they consider that they who have fearlessly bowed their necks to this yoke, and have with much submission taken this burden upon their shoulders, are tossed about and exercised by so great difficulties in the world, that they seem not to be called from labor to rest, but from rest to labor.
If seems like Augustine is being sarcastic. People take on Jesus’ yoke, yet they get more work, labor, troubles, and are more tired. He went on to give proofs that those who have faith in Christ are not exempted from life’s trials, but overcome them. They overcome them mightily.
One problem is that we think that Jesus’ rest somehow equates to an easy life, to having no worries, to prosperity without cost. Have faith in Jesus and you will win the lottery! Hurray, give me more Jesus! Jesus’ statement is conditional. We have to take His yoke. A yoke is a binding device. It hooks two animals together for the purpose of doing – WORK.
Anyone who has taken Jesus’ yoke, and who is bound to Him no matter what, finds out that God is always asking them to do hard and even practically impossible things.
Jesus’ yoke, being bound to Him and living completely in step with him, means we will not be safe, respected, comfortable, and always prosperous. Jesus’ path is often reckless and risky. Being bond to Him means we give up being bound to other (often easy) things to follow where He leads.
We are called to do what God asks regardless of the cost and trust that God will cover us. The problem is that there is a cost to being bound to Jesus. It may be suffering, not enough money, inconvenience, danger, and even being unwelcome. God may not seem to be covering us. He is! For this is His revelation to us, His “little ones.” Trust that He is in charge, has a purpose, aids us in battle, and gives us victory.
If, then, we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. We know that Christ, raised from the dead, dies no more; death no longer has power over him. As to his death, he died to sin once and for all; as to his life, he lives for God.
This past Friday, at 1am, police were called to our neighborhood. 28-year old Angel Carrion was dead. Killed by a gunshot wound to the chest.
If you read the various news stories you will see different views of what happened. Time Warner News talks about loud parties at the residence, all night partying, mysterious middle-aged figures in black cars, children in the midst of adults doing adult things. Police there all the time. They paint a picture of broken families, broken lives.
WTEN shows a different side of the story. Angel was a father of three, a friend, someone who was brother to those who weren’t even his family. Angel’s childhood friend Jorge said, “He was a good friend. He was a good father. He helped out the community. Nobody is perfect in this world, but he didn’t deserve this.” Other neighbors noted their worry for the children who live here. One neighbor said: “For the kids, it’s going to be scary for them, too, knowing there’s a shooting right up the road.”
We began this year dedicating it to the theme of family. In my annual report I said: “…we do not just come to church to have our needs met. No family exists just to serve one or a few members. The same for the Church – our family of faith is about all its members and our relationship with the head of the family – Jesus. We belong to His family. Our family of faith does not exist to just meet individual needs. We exist to meet the needs of our fellow family members and a world that badly needs to know Jesus.”
Angel and his family, this neighborhood, its children are part of that world that needs to know Jesus. They know Him through us. In us they should see faith in Jesus’ saving power. In us they should see the joy that comes from a life that takes all the good we, and men like Angel do, to the next level through unity with Jesus. Jesus died for all. To free all from sin. As Angel’s friend Jorge said, “Nobody is perfect in this world.” In all of our imperfection the world has to know that Jesus is there for us, to save us, to raise us up. He is in this neighborhood, calling us to reject sin and grab His promises – life without end even in tragedy.
In Jesus we are bound together – parishioners, Angel, his family, this neighborhood – a bond so strong that no sin, even murder, even tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, or sword can harm us. In this bond, in the life we have in Jesus, let us offer hope to our neighborhood and all who so need Him Who is our hope and new way of life.
The Masterpieces will be shown at the Cinema Arts Centre, at 423 Park Avenue, Huntington, NY from June 18th through July 23rd. More Masterpieces to come on July 9th, 13th, 16th and 23rd. Titles to be announced.
Organized and curated by Martin Scorsese, one of the most recognized and respected filmmakers in the world, the series is the largest presentation of restored Polish cinema to date.
21 Films you might not know
Martin Scorsese has personally selected 21 Polish films that have been an inspiration and influence.
30+ Theaters across North America
Martin Scorsese Presents: Masterpieces of Polish Cinema is an unprecedented cultural event. Polish cinema has never been showcased in North America on such a scale. The best in classic Polish film will be shown in cities in the U.S. and Canada throughout 2014, beginning with a special premiere presentation in New York City on February 5th.
Pristine quality
Films in the series will be presented in the highest possible quality thanks to extensive digital picture and audio restoration. Dirt, scratches and other ravages of time have been removed, while preserving the integrity and beauty of the original films.
Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me.
In any good relationship we see the other person for who they are – first and foremost a human being. We look beyond appearance, beyond the externals, beyond our personal desires and wants (what we can take from or get from that person) and recognize their value. We treat that person with respect and honor and want to be with them. We want to be with them because they offer their humanity and respect in return for the humanity and respect we offer.
As Christians we easily see the sin of turning others into objects. We also know the problems inherent in pursuing things as solutions to problems or as an end in themselves.
During the 8 days that began Thursday, June 19th we particularly honor and commemorate Jesus’ gift of His body and blood in the Eucharist. Our minds and hearts are called to adore Jesus in this precious gift. However, we must be very careful to keep the reality of Jesus before us.
When the Church was new, the Apostles and all those who knew Jesus, who lived and ministered alongside Him, who were taught by Him, recognized His reality.
In the centuries that followed Christians recognized the reality of Jesus in the celebration of the Holy Eucharist. When they recalled Him saying: “Do this in remembrance of Me,” they actually heard: “Do this and be one with Me.” For them, the celebration of the Eucharist every Sunday was an active encounter with the reality of Jesus. These Christians were one with Jesus at every moment of His eternity, His earthly life, and His return in glory. They were with Jesus in the past, present, and future. All this was found in the Eucharist. They saw, felt, and lived the reality of Jesus and the promise He gave: Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him. He was with and in them and they knew it. They realized that by participating in the Eucharist and receiving Holy Communion they were with Him and each other forever.
Later, and for many reasons, the people of the Church stopped seeing the Eucharist as an encounter with the reality of Jesus. Certainly the Church never lost faith in Jesus’s real presence in the signs of bread and wine, but the Eucharist became more an object, a memory limited three days in Jesus’ life. The Body and Blood were adored, but as an object. Our obligation is to take this Solemnity and every Sunday as a call to re-encounter the reality of Jesus who remains with us now and forever.
