Ash Wednesday and Good Friday have been set forth as days of strict fasting. Days of abstinence (not eating meat) are Wednesdays and Fridays during Lent. The pious tradition of abstinence on Fridays outside of Eastertide is also observed, but not mandatory. In situations where health considerations make such observance impossible, ecclesiastical dispensation should be secured.
The rule of fasting is a fairly simple one and therefore bears the full authority of the Church. Our Lord announced to his followers that he expected them to fast. “But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast on that day.” (Mark 2:20)
Jesus even issued instructions on how Christians were to comfort themselves when they fast, promising them God’s reward. “When you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you may not appear to be fasting, except to your Father who is in hidden. And your Father who sees what is hidden will repay you.” (Matthew 6:17-18) Our Lord Himself fasted, forty days and forty nights, and later warned that some spiritual evils are overcome only “through prayer and through fasting.” (Mark 9:29)
Striving to follow Christ, St. Paul himself engaged in “frequent fastings.” (2 Corinthians 11:27). Paul urged Christians to prove themselves to be ministers of God in “fasts“. (2 Corinthians 6:5) When we fast or abstain, then, we do so in obedience to the Lord’s own command. We imitate His example and join in the company of all the blessed Saints, who tried to follow Him, and whose lives were adomed by this means of grace and intercession.
Today, when we fast and abstain in obedience to the Church’s law on prescribed days we join ourselves to fellow Catholics throughout the world in a mighty supplication to God. — From “To Grow in Catholic Faith in the Polish National Catholic Church” by Ś.P. Most Rev. Francis Rowinski, D.D. fourth Prime Bishop of the PNCC
From Pantagraph: LaSalle Co. prosecutor: Church dispute is civil matter (also see here)
STREATOR — No criminal prosecution is expected in a case involving a monsignor’s allegation that an 86-year-old woman took money that did not belong to her group.
The matter instead is civil, said LaSalle County State’s Attorney Brian Towne. Dorothy Swital of Streator has hired a lawyer and a benefit will be held Sunday to pay her expenses.
Monsignor John Prendergast, head of the now-combined Streator parishes, earlier said Swital transferred two certificates of deposit from the now-defunct St. Casimir Altar and Rosary Society to the new Polish Rosary Society.
The $35,622 belongs to the new St. Michael the Archangel parish and not her group, said Prendergast.
“We have been in consultation with the lawyers involved,” said Towne. “The money is not missing. We know exactly where it is and when you get into that kind of situation, it’s a civil matter.”
Swital said she has had no contact with Prendergast but continues to believe it is the new group’s money. “I’ve gotten a lot of support,” she said. “I would say it’s three to one.
“We gave it (the money) to the church when they needed it,” said Swital. “We’ve done nothing wrong.”
Prendergast and diocesan officials continue to maintain it is church money, citing both canon (church) and civil law.
A chicken and spaghetti meal for Swital’s defense fund will run from noon until 3 p.m. Sunday at Polish National Alliance Hall, 906 Livingston St.
Four Streator Roman Catholic parishes, including St. Casimir, were combined into one parish. A new church building on the north side is planned.
Seems an issue of money over souls; the letter of the law over the spirit of the law. Why is recourse always to the law? Can’t Christians resolve such things among themselves? St. Paul warned us about this — see 1 Corinthians 6:1-7. How will the Monsignor be a judge of the world when he must run to authorities over such a simple matter?
The Monsignor may have his laws books straight, but then, so did the Pharisees. If he were to relent, what harm would come – these ladies would support their church wholeheartedly, with their prayer, hard work, and money. Instead, he will win, and in the process their hearts and faith will be broken. Rather than hallowed victory, he and the Church he is supposed to represent will have hollow victory.
The voice of the LORD cries to the city —
and it is sound wisdom to fear thy name:
“Hear, O tribe and assembly of the city!
Therefore I have begun to smite you,
making you desolate because of your sins.
You shall eat, but not be satisfied,
and there shall be hunger in your inward parts;
you shall put away, but not save,
and what you save I will give to the sword.
You shall sow, but not reap;
you shall tread olives, but not anoint yourselves with oil;
you shall tread grapes, but not drink wine.” — Micah 6:9,13-15
My suggestion, leave the Monsignor his money, let him wallow in it and eat its fruit. Come to your nearest PNCC Parish, or start one in Streator, where your hard work and contribution will always be within your control. As you say: the things you have worked for, for the benefit of the Church. No one will grasp at your purse while you dine at the table of the Lord.
First reading: Genesis 2:7-9 and Genesis 3:1-7
Psalm: Ps 51:3-6,12-13,17
Epistle: Romans 5:12-19
Gospel: Matthew 4:1-11
how much more will those who receive the abundance of grace
and of the gift of justification
come to reign in life through the one Jesus Christ.
Distance
I want you to picture that day, John, Mary, the other women standing under the cross. Jesus has died, His blood and water flow out and onto the ground. Now walk with me. We travel through time, and what happened to that moment under the cross? It is farther and farther away. It seems to be distant, history, something from long ago.
Birth of the Church
From the moment of Jesus’ death, from the moment the first drop of His blood hit the ground, the Church was born. But what is the Church? What was born at that moment? And, is what was born that moment only history?
What we are not
First we must consider what the Church is not:
The Church is not an opportunity for fellowship. The Church is not a club or exclusive group. The Church is not an earthly institution. The Church was not established only for our well-being or to teach us moral rules for life. The Church is not solely what it does, the sacraments, the synods, meetings and bishops, priests, deacons, councils.
In fact, Jesus Christ died that the Church might be born. As we stand under the cross we stand at the very moment the Church was born, and that moment defines us forever.
Time doesn’t matter
Father and I both like science fiction. Those familiar with sci-fi know that on occasion authors play on time travel. What some consider science fiction, we live – for this is what the Church is.
That little journey we took, we must see as a falsehood. The cross isn’t back there in time, a moment long ago and lost to books and history. We are not here, at a distance, removed from the foot of the cross.
At that moment of Christ’s death, at the moment the Holy Church was born, the cross extended through time and space. It became an eternally present reality and the very center and focus of our lives.
God gave us the Church from that moment, and forever, so that we might be saved. He gave us the Church so that His life would be ours and our lives would be His.
We know that God is love, and He gave the Holy Church that we might become the very love of God found in the cross.
Becoming
In the Church, in the Holy Cross, we do more than evolve. We don’t just become better people. We come to exist as we should, as we were designed to exist.
The Church is the reality of God’s life with us, and our life with Him. It is where the love of each member for each member, and the love of each member for all, is our truth.
The Church is the place where forgiveness is not a moral act, or something we are obligated to do -– but rather an act that is at the core of our existence, something we do because it is who we are. Goodness, humility, kindness, generosity, truth, evangelism, charity are who we are, not things we do just because someone else, long ago and far away, said we should. The Church is the reality where we find who we really are, not the place we fight against who we are.
If God were cruel, He would have designed us as evil or ignorant beings, and then would have given us rules, so that we lived in constant conflict against our nature. No! God created us in His image, with true humanity and love at our core. He gave us the Church to be the place we connect to our nature, to our life in Him, to our life as it is meant to be.
If we fail to see the Church as the mystical center and ark of salvation we fail to understand the thing most fundamental to our Christian faith. The Church is the ark in which we meet God, stand under the cross, and where we weather the storms of what we are not with God. It is the place that takes us from the flood of sin and death — the things against ourselves, and carries us to eternal life with God.
Standing in
So today we stand in the Church. We stand in the mystical place that meets the cross extending through all of history and time. In it we experience the body and blood of Jesus, the very body on the cross, the very blood that flowed from it. In the Church we touch that very moment. We stand under the cross and in the cross. We stand with God, and in Him. We connect to who we were always meant to be, with more than that, with who we really are. We find God in us and God in each other. That, my friends, is the Church.
Today we encounter the crucified Christ, in His full reality. In this encounter, in this very moment, our encounter with Him is an encounter with His eternal love and forgiveness.
In the Church we extend God’s love and forgiveness to all. We encounter Christ not because we have purged the Church or the world of every sinner, or have corrected everything we think wrong, but because we embrace the weakness of love, the cross, which saves all. Our love, our unity with God’s love, is stronger even than death. In the fulfillment of the love shown in the cross, present today, present in our lives, we find our resurrection. Our union with the Crucified Christ, and the love He gave of the cross, marks the heart of our Christian vocation and life.
More than heritage
Today we give special thanks for our organizer, Bishop Francis Hodur, and those brave souls who reconnected themselves with the reality of the Holy Cross, who understood the Christian vocation as the fellowship of believers who live in unity of love, who are true to the cross of love. It exists as much today as it did in 1897, as it did 2,000 years ago.
Those brave Christians saw the truth: not the organization, not the structures, not the cathedrals or palaces. They saw the cross and the call to live within the Church of Christ as brothers and sisters. That is not just our 114 year old heritage, it is our reality today. We are not distant. We stand in the same place, under the same cross of love, where weakness is strength, where life is eternal, where we meet God and each other, true to our Christian vocation, one in love.
As St. Paul said: We have received the abundance of grace and of the gift of justification in the present eternal reality of the Church. Because of that, we will come to reign in life eternal through Jesus Christ.
Amen.
From Bishop Thaddeus Peplowski of the Buffalo-Pittsburgh Diocese in Acts: New Hope – New Vision – New Growth
This second decade of the Twenty First Century promises a sturdy and sure foundation for the Polish National Catholic Church. We enter in the 114 Anniversary of the organization of the Church and the 104 Anniversary of the Consecration of the First Bishop, Francis Hodur in valid and licit Apostolic Succession. The fact that we have preserved our Holy Orders in an unbroken line with the first Holy Apostles, has ignited the flame of a New Hope and an enlightened vision for the future growth and expansion of the Polish National Catholic Church. Our battle cry for success continues to inspire people in other nations to follow our lead in preserving the concept of National Catholic Churches in which: “By Truth, Work and Struggle, We Shall Succeed!”
I have just returned from a successful missionary visit to both Germany and Italy where there are both former Anglican and Old Catholic Parishes and Communities that are disillusioned over the questionable validity of some doctrines and sacraments that are being practiced in those Churches. They respect the decision that our bishops took in 2003 at the Bishop’s Conference in Prague in breaking official ties with European Old Catholic Churches. There are many clergy and lay members who feel the same way and want to be in union with our church. They are asking that we listen to their pleas and offer some type of accommodations that will allow them to be in Communion with the Polish National Catholic Church. The purpose of the “Union of Scranton” was proposed so that they might find a haven that will continue to maintain the traditional Old Catholic teachings and practices.
In Germany, I was invited to visit a former Old Catholic Monastic Abbey that follows the Cistercian Rule and they are looking for union with an on-going traditional Old Catholic Church. The Polish National Catholic Church is the only Old Catholic Body that fits that criteria, so through the influence of Father Roald Flemested of the Nordic Catholic Church, they were directed to contact me. We met with Abbot Klaus Schlapps at St. Severn’s Abbey in Kaufberuren, Bavaria. This Abbey also serves about 100 members of a Parish Church St. Lucas in the town of Kaufberuren. There are priests, brothers and nuns who make up this Order and serve five other Old Catholic Congregations in Germany. There are also possibilities of accepting other groups in France, Switzerland and five Parishes in Cameroon, Africa. The talks appear to be very positive for establishing relations that could include them in the Union of Scranton.
We traveled nine hours by train from Bavaria through Austria and the Swiss Alps to the famous city of Turin, the permanent home of the Shroud of Turin. Our missionary endeavor was successful there for now have three Parishes in Italy: St. Stanislaus Kostka Parish in Luca with Fr. Claudio Boca as Pastor; Merciful Jesus Parish in Turin with Fr. Giuseppe Biancotti as its Pastor, and Holy Spirit Parish in Sabaudia with Fr. Luciano Bruno as its Pastor. Another Parish is in the process of being organized near Pizza by Father Gastone Bernacchi, whom I ordained on Saturday, January 15th. Two of these Parishes were formerly Old Catholic Congregations under the Bishop of Switzerland. Inquiries are also coming from other former Anglican and Old Catholic Communities who see in the PNCC the traditional catholic teachings and Apostolic Orders that are vital signs of being a part of the true Church of Jesus Christ.
Too often we America National Catholics take our Church for granted and feel that we belong to a small, little known denomination that no one knows or cares about. The Polish National Catholic Church however, is greatly admired by people throughout the world as being a Church of great faith and conviction, and they seek to be one with us because we maintain the traditional signs of a true Church, for we are: One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic in preserving a very orthodox and traditional faith. For these very reasons, we should continue to have Hope and New Vision for the future growth and expansion of the National Catholic Church’s expression of the true faith.
In 2011, let us take the example of our newest mission fields where people are very open and positive about expressing their joy of being a part of the PNCC and because of their new or refound faith, they are not afraid to talk to others about what the Church means in their lives. We need to stop standing along the side lines and criticizing what is happening and get out into the mainstream of life and tell others about the Church. Our words and actions are positive seeds that will cause the PNCC to grow not only in new mission fields, but also blossom and bear fruit right in our own hometown congregations. All it takes is faith, and God will do the rest.
From the Bloomington Pantagraph: Streator parish mired in $35,000 dispute
STREATOR — The 86-year-old former head of the now-defunct Altar & Rosary Society of St. Casmir Roman Catholic Church had to make a trip to the police station Tuesday to explain why her organization did not steal $35,622 that a monsignor says belongs to the parish.
Dorothy Swital said she told the police the money was raised by her society and did not belong to the church, so the society was within its rights to transfer the two certificates of deposit to the newly created Altar Society of the Polish National Alliance in Streator. She said the new group’s mission is the same as its predecessor’s: raise money to aid the Catholic Church’s work.
Monsignor John Prendergast, who heads the St. Michael the Archangel Parish, which was created by the consolidation of four parishes last fall, called the transfers “unauthorized withdrawals” from a church account.
No charges were filed as of Tuesday. Police declined to comment on the investigation.
Prendergast said Tuesday that Swital was given “ample opportunity” to resolve the dispute without it going to the police and the public. He said now that the matter is in police hands, he cannot comment, other than to say “the church has survived for 2,000 years and it will survive this.”
The dispute is part of a continuing feud between some parishioners of the defunct Streator parishes and the Peoria Diocese and Prendergast. The diocese opted to close St. Stephen’s, St. Anthony’s, Immaculate Conception, and St. Casimir’s parishes and merge them into the new parish to cut costs and revitalize the Catholic Church community in the city, Prendergast said previously.
In a letter to Swital made public this week, the monsignor vowed to bring charges against her if she did not return the money by Feb. 4. With that deadline passed and the police complaint filed, Swital said she was asked by the police department to come in and make her statement.
“We raised that money,” Swital said Tuesday. “Any time they (the church) needed it for something, we’d give it to them.”
None of the money came from church collections, she said…
Also see State’s attorney to review Streator church funds
Of note, in the PNCC, Church organizations like the Women’s Adoration Society, YMS of R, and parent groups supporting the parish Schools of Christian Living are all independent and answerable only to their individual constitutions and membership. Of course they actively support their parishes and do thousands of positive and valuable things for the Church and their parishes. As with the ladies mentioned above, these societies are formed, organized, and governed on a principal of love for the Church and its mission. Clerical control is not what is necessary, but a community that abides by the democratic principals which subsists in the PNCC. For instance, per the Constitution of the PNCC:
ARTICLE V, SECTION 8. All of the funds, moneys and property, whether real or personal, belong to those members of the Parish who conform to the Rites, Constitution, Principles, Laws, Rules, Regulations, Customs and Usages of this Church, and subject to the provisions of this Constitution and Laws.
Similar statements are contained in the constitutions of the various Church Societies. For instance, the Constitution of the National United Women’s Societies for the Adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament notes that the “Pastor serves as the Society’s spiritual advisor” (Article IV, Administration, Section 4). Funds are used in keeping with the Society’s mission and goals (Article II, Purpose, and Article III Membership and Responsibilities). Each Society controls its own funds (Article V, Dues and Funds) through its votes and elected officers (Article IV, Administration, Sections 1 and 2).
Also note, per the Church Constitution, the Pastor doesn’t control the existence and development of Church Societies, but supports them, seeing to fertile ground so that they may exist and develop.
ARTICLE XIV, SECTION 4. [The Pastor] organizes and is responsible for the conduct of a School of Christian Living, the Standard Church Societies and, whenever and if possible, a Polish School. He shall particularly take care that the School of Christian Living and the Standard Church Societies established by the Synods shall exist and develop within his Parish.
Chicago Now looks back in history at the conflict that led to the founding of an independent Polish Catholic Church in Chicago (which later became part of the PNCC) in Civil War at St. Hedwig (2-9-1895). Note the key phrase I have highlighted:
Like the flag of Poland, there was white and red. Blood was on the snow outside St. Hedwig church–and a bit of red pepper.
St. Hedwig parish had been founded in 1888 to serve Polish Catholics in Bucktown. The pastor was Rev. Joseph Barzynski. He was a member of a religious order–the Congregation of the Resurrection, or Resurrectionists.
Now, in the early months of 1895, the parish was engulfed in civil war. One faction supported the pastor. The other side had gathered around Rev. Anthony Kozlowski, the young assistant who’d recently arrived from Poland. Kozlowski was not a Resurrectionist.
Depending on which side you listened to, there were many reasons for the conflict. Was Kozlowski attempting a power-play to become pastor? Were the Resurrectionists too autocratic? Was someone stealing money from the St. Hedwig treasury? What role should lay people play in a parish? Who should hold title to parish property?
A majority of the parishioners backed Kozlowski. There were protests at Sunday Mass. The police placed guards at the church. On the evening of February 7, the situation turned violent.
About 3,000 people, mostly women, tried to storm the parish rectory. The pastor and his new assistant barricaded themselves inside. The police guard called for backup…
The Polish National Catholic Church rightly takes pride in the fact that its people, all its people, function as its legislative body. Per the Constitution of the PNCC:
ARTICLE VI — CHURCH AUTHORITY
SECTION 1. The authority of this Church is vested in three branches, namely: legislative, executive and judicial.
…
SECTION 3. In administrative, managerial and social matters, this Church derives its authority from the people who build, constitute, believe in, support and care for it. It is a fundamental principle of this Church that all Parish property, whether the same be real, personal, or mixed, is the property of those united with the Parish who build and support this Church and conform to the Rite, Constitution, Principles, Laws, Rules, Regulations, Customs and Usages of this Church.
SECTION 4. The administration, management and control over all the property of the Parish is vested in the Parish Committee elected by the Parish and confirmed by the Diocesan Bishop, and strictly dependent upon and answerable to the lawful authorities of this Church.
The Church is democratically governed, that is, its people make the decisions and express their will at Holy Synod, both the quadrennial General Synod and at Diocesan Synods.
One of the problems frequently seen in other Churches, with similar democratic forms of governance, is the constancy of faith, morals, Tradition, doctrine, and liturgy (within liturgical Churches) under a democratic decision making processes. Are there limits to democracy, and can democracy trump all things?
In a democratic Church, are you one vote away from deciding Jesus is not true-God and true-man, from denying the Virgin birth, from turning the resurrection into a fuzzy myth narrative of confused and poor disciples who carried along the beautiful message of Jesus because it was oh so special to them?
There are those, even within the PNCC, who take Bishop Hodur’s teaching on the democratic nature of the community of Church as a license to make everything subject to democratic process. This form of thinking places the individual in charge of the Church’s teaching, and frees them from the constraints of ‘all that old stuff we’ve gotten way past.’ They use enlightenment arguments, Bishop Hodur arguments, other Churches are doing it arguments, it suits me better arguments, and its unfair/unjust/un-democratic arguments. They only argument they fail to see is the Catholic argument, the linkage to the universal constant within which we strive to overcome what is personal to reach what is Divine.
InsideCatholic, a strongly apologist website which easily resorts to the “heretic” and “exommunicated” argument does make a solid point in Episcopal/Catholic Conversion Is a Two-Way Street:
The developing story of the new Apostolic Constitution for Anglicans continues to unfold in the media, boosted by the Anglican Communion’s instability due to the Episcopal Church and their co-revisionists in the Anglican Church of Canada. Less reported has been the equally well-trafficked path away from Rome and toward the Episcopal Church.
In 2009, Episcopal bishop and gay celebrity Gene Robinson crowed that his New Hampshire diocese was brimming with disaffected Catholics, drawn to the promise of a more inclusive church. While Bishop Robinson’s celebration was premature … he was not misrepresenting the source of some new pew occupants.
“Pope Ratzinger,” Bishop Robinson declared, referring to Benedict XVI by his given name in a late-2005 speech, “may be the best thing to happen to the Episcopal Church . . . . We are seeing so many Roman Catholics join the [Episcopal] church.”
Roman Catholics and Episcopalians have swapped places for years, easily facilitated by related liturgical forms and practices. Unlike other Reformation-era churches, the Church of England, then a geographic arm of the Roman Church, maintained the forms and hierarchies of its parent. The Anglo-Catholic wing of Anglicanism is the closest to its source, in many cases conducting services that are more recognizably Catholic than the post-Vatican II Mass. Some American conservatives see Rome’s embrace of theological orthodoxy — reasserted by Benedict and his predecessor, Pope John Paul II — as a compelling alternative to an increasingly listless Episcopal Church.
Similarly, liberal Catholics tied to their forms of worship enjoy the option to embrace the Episcopal Church’s “Catholicism Lite” without the inconvenient frowning upon birth control, abortion, or whatever the latest sexual lifestyle innovation might be.
The point being that if Church is merely choices, one may find the most comfortable outward portrayal of Church for oneself. One may find that place where a loose set of choices is constantly put up for personal and collective vote as the mood strikes today. It is a stunning lack of constancy and perseverance on the narrow road (Matthew 7:13-14).
As with any linear analysis of possible alternatives, one can find the place of balance. In the PNCC the balance point lies at the junction between democracy and assent. Democracy is a governing principal, and self determination over what one gives to build the Church. No one can take the parish, or the Church itself, away from those who “build, constitute, believe in, support and care for it.” In the same manner, no one can use the power of the vote to take the Catholic out of the Church, similarly taking catholicity away from those very same people.
At the XXIII General Synod, a perfect example of balance was on display. The Church Doctrine Commission presented two papers, “To Live in the Spirit of God,” which addressed Church teaching on current moral and bioethical issues, and “Eschatology in the PNCC: A Clarification.” Both were presented, not for a vote, but for the assent of the faithful.
In accord with the Constitution of the PNCC:
ARTICLE VI — CHURCH AUTHORITY
SECTION 2. In matters of Faith, morals and discipline the authority of this Church lies in the hands of the Prime Bishop, Diocesan Bishops and Clergy united with them. This authority is derived directly from God through Jesus Christ, agreeably with the words of our Savior: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you: and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age.” (Matthew 28:18-20).
“Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” (Matthew 18:18)
The Church’s Catholic nature of Church precludes votes on doctrine and its Holy Tradition. As PNCC faithful, we are bound to conform our lives to the Church’s teaching, not as a matter of choice but as a matter of becoming.
Of course, we are not all there, conforming our lives and our choices perfectly to the Church’s guidance. It is difficult to lay down ones life (John 15:13). We all struggle in the gulf between our sinfulness and perfection, the gap between what is earthly and Divine within us. As we travel that road in growing closer to God’s desires for us, as we climb the ladder, we are called to become, to strive for that which is promised to the faithful. That promise is best fulfilled under the guiding and protecting hand of sound orthodox doctrine and Tradition — not a fuzzy assumption that we are any more right today in our personal choices than people have been for 2,000 years.
Yes, a Church can have a democratic form of governance and hold its Catholic faith through assent.
From The Southern: Teens rocked by unemployment
Katie Pemberton is one of the lucky ones.
Pemberton, a Benton Consolidated High School senior, had no trouble landing a job the Franklin County election office, a requirement for her participation in the BCHS work program.
“I’ve been working here since the end of August, and I’ve had other jobs before,” she said. “It was really pretty easy to find one.”
Others weren’t so lucky, according to program coordinator Sandy Blackman, a BCHS teacher.In years past, the school-to-work program had an enrollment of 15 to 20 students who attended school half a day and worked, for pay, at jobs in the community the other half of the day.
“We now have six kids,” Blackman said. “The jobs just aren’t out there.”
While Blackman doesn’t always match students to jobs, she does send out a letter to local businesses describing the program and asking employers to consider hiring her students.
Before the start of this school year, she sent out 250 such letters.
She got only one reply.
“We’ve had businesses that hire a student every year, but not this year,” she said.
The national economy is likely the culprit in the disappearance of teen jobs, she said.
“The kids come to me to ask about job openings and there just aren’t any,” Blackman said. “Some businesses can’t afford taking on another employee right now.”
Not alone
Blackman’s students aren’t alone in their failure to find a job.
According to figures from the U.S. Bureau of Statistics, the national unemployment rate for teens ages 16 to 19 was 25.4 percent in December. While that number dipped slightly from the 26.2 percent unemployed at the start of 2010, it represents a huge increase from December 2006, when only 14.6 percent were unemployed…
And from Bloomberg Businessweek: The Youth Unemployment Bomb
From Cairo to London to Brooklyn, too many young people are jobless and disaffected. Inside the global effort to put the next generation to work
In Tunisia, the young people who helped bring down a dictator are called hittistes—French-Arabic slang for those who lean against the wall. Their counterparts in Egypt, who on Feb. 1 forced President Hosni Mubarak to say he won’t seek reelection, are the shabab atileen, unemployed youths. The hittistes and shabab have brothers and sisters across the globe. In Britain, they are NEETs—”not in education, employment, or training.” In Japan, they are freeters: an amalgam of the English word freelance and the German word Arbeiter, or worker. Spaniards call them mileuristas, meaning they earn no more than 1,000 euros a month. In the U.S., they’re “boomerang” kids who move back home after college because they can’t find work. Even fast-growing China, where labor shortages are more common than surpluses, has its “ant tribe”—recent college graduates who crowd together in cheap flats on the fringes of big cities because they can’t find well-paying work.
In each of these nations, an economy that can’t generate enough jobs to absorb its young people has created a lost generation of the disaffected, unemployed, or underemployed—including growing numbers of recent college graduates for whom the post-crash economy has little to offer. Tunisia’s Jasmine Revolution was not the first time these alienated men and women have made themselves heard. Last year, British students outraged by proposed tuition increases—at a moment when a college education is no guarantee of prosperity—attacked the Conservative Party’s headquarters in London and pummeled a limousine carrying Prince Charles and his wife, Camilla Bowles. Scuffles with police have repeatedly broken out at student demonstrations across Continental Europe. And last March in Oakland, Calif., students protesting tuition hikes walked onto Interstate 880, shutting it down for an hour in both directions…
Couple disaffected youth, the hopelessness that the new economy has wrought (no, you never will catch up with your parent’s standard, much less gain any power) and throw in a few friends who learned the fine art of IED making in Afghanistan and Iraq, and — well you know who they’ll be targeting first.
Our challenge, particularly as Christians, is not to pull the wool over their eyes, or gloss over the struggle, but to show them that there actually is something else. We have the place where worldliness and all that comes with it is of little importance, where small community and self-reliance make for a good and positive life, the place where we work together, for each other and for the Everlasting. Should we teach them about iPods or I-we-and-Thee?
As it was in 1897, so it is today in the year 1910, that Bishop Hodur is a supporter of reform in the civil or the social spirit, he is for the nationalization of the land, of churches, schools, factories, mines and the means of production. He has stated this openly and states it publicly today, he does not hide his sympathies for the workers’ movement and he will never hide them, and he considers himself nothing else than a worker in God’s Church.
But the bishop is an opponent of erasing religion from the cultural work of humanity — indeed, Bishop Hodur believes strongly and is convinced that all progress, growth, just and harmonious shaping of human relations must come from a religious foundation, lean on Divine ethics, and then such growth will be permanent and will give humanity happiness. — Straz, 21 Jan. 1910.
And when the time came for their purification according to the law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it is written in the law of the Lord, “Every male that opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord”) and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the law of the Lord, “a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons.”
Now there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, looking for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he should not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. And inspired by the Spirit he came into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him according to the custom of the law, he took him up in his arms and blessed God and said,
“Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace,
according to thy word;
for mine eyes have seen thy salvation
which thou hast prepared in the presence of all peoples,
a light for revelation to the Gentiles,
and for glory to thy people Israel.”
And his father and his mother marveled at what was said about him
From Christian Newswire: Top Eight Things Your Church Can Do to Increase Membership in 2011
Most churches in the United States are facing declining membership, but the message is still as relevant as in the past. So what’s changed? The message is getting lost in all the clutter.
Here are my top 8 tips for increasing your church membership in 2011:
- List your church on Google Places. Last month 17 million people googled “church, find a church, church home, Methodist Church, Baptist church, etc.”
- Make up or buy some cards that invite people to your church and hand them out to every member. Ask them to go out and perform random acts of kindness and give out the cards. Memory Cross has developed some very unique ones or you can create your own. If each of your members can touch three people a year, think what an impact that would make to your community and your church.
- Get a list of people in the neighborhoods around your church and reach out to them at least 3-4 times a year. Postcards are a great tool because they are inexpensive and people have to see them, at least for a second.
- Create door hangers or flyers and give them to members to hand out in their neighborhood.
- Hold a free community event. It can be anything from a car wash to a concert to handing out bottles of water on a hot summer day. Do not accept any donations. Instead hand out a card with your church information on it.
- Start using email marketing and ask for the names and email address of all visitors. This will provide you a second way to connect with them.
- Set up a system where you connect visitors with someone in your church as soon as possible. Too many people come one time; and if they don’t feel connected to the church, they may not return. Even a phone call to thank them for visiting is a great way to open up conversation.
- Form a group that is committed to praying for people in your community. Meet on a regular basis and encourage them to write down any outreach ideas they come up with.
If you take action on these eight steps, you will find new visitors coming to your church and people’s lives being changed.
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!