He said to him, "You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Recall back a few weeks when I mentioned our gospels are taken from Jesus final week in Jerusalem before His arrest, death, and burial. The gospels we have read focus on the challenges to Jesus from both the Pharisees and the Sadducees. They tried to trap Jesus with questions about taxes, the resurrection, and today about the greatest commandment. These discourses will go on in the weeks to come, eventually leading to Jesus’ final teachings on the end times.

Reflecting on the Eucharist & Holy Orders before the Lord’s Day. The clearest view of the early Church’s worship outside of scripture is The Didache, which includes “Assemble on the Lord’s day, and break bread and offer the Eucharist; but first make confession of your faults, so that your sacrifice may be a pure one. Anyone who has a difference with his fellow is not to take part with you until he has been reconciled, so as to avoid any profanation of Your sacrifice [Matt. 5:23–24]. For this is the offering of which the Lord has said, ‘Everywhere and always bring Me a sacrifice that is undefiled, for I am a great king, says the Lord, and My Name is the wonder of nations’ (A.D. 70).

Reflecting on a call to serve. Let us pray. Almighty and loving Father, we, the members of the Polish National Catholic Church and beyond come before You with grateful hearts, lifting Your servant, Bishop-elect Charles Zawistowski. We thank You for his priestly ministry and for calling him to serve Your people as a bishop in the Polish National Catholic Church. As he prepares for his consecration, fill him with the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Grant him wisdom to discern Your will, courage to proclaim Your truth, and humility to seek Your guidance in every responsibility entrusted to him.

For the souls the bishop aids with the Sacraments. The Beautiful Hands of a Priest. We need them in life’s early morning, we need them again at its close; We feel their warm clasp of friendship, we seek them when tasting life’s woes. At the altar each day we behold them, and the hands of a king on his throne Are not equal to them in their greatness; their dignity stands all alone; And when we are tempted and wander to pathways of shame and sin, It’s the hand of a priest that will absolve us—-not once, but again and again

To be Jesus- “The Imitation of Christ” by Thomas a Kempis. When you have Christ, you are rich, and He will be sufficient for you. He will provide for you, and be your faithful and provident helper in all things, so that you need not trust in others. For humans soon change, and they quickly fail; but Christ abides forever, and stand by us firmly to the end. We must not place great confidence in frail and mortal man, useful though he may be, and dearly beloved, nor should you be grieved if he sometimes opposes and contradicts you.

The Humility of a Priest- Prayer of St. Ambrose. Lord Jesus Christ, I approach Your banquet table in fear and trembling, for I am a sinner, and dare not rely on my own worth, but only on Your goodness and mercy. I am defiled by many sins in body and soul, and by my unguarded thoughts and words. Gracious God of majesty and awe, I seek Your protection, I look for Your healing. Poor troubled sinner that I am, I appeal to You, the fountain of all mercy. I cannot bear Your judgment, but I trust in Your salvation.

In Gratitude for his Generous Response to God’s Call. He said to them, “The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest. - Luke 10:2. O Lord, You have made us for Yourself and our hearts are restless until they rest in You. Pour forth Your Spirit upon Bishop-elect Charles Zawistowski, who, throughout many years, has discerned his calling to the fullness of Holy Orders. As he approaches his consecration, free him from temptations so that his mind and heart may be fixed on the One who called him.

He said to them, "Then repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God." When we first listen to this encounter between Jesus and the Pharisees, we sense two things going on. The first is the trap being set for Jesus. If He says, ‘don’t pay the tax,’ He becomes an enemy of Rome and will be arrested and killed. If He says pay it, He is an ally of the enemy, and the people will hate Him. He escapes that trap in what He says, pay your obligation to each according to what you value. The second instinct is to focus on the relationship between Church and government, and of course everyone’s general dislike of paying taxes.

Wives, be subject to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives and never treat them harshly. Children, obey your parents in everything, for this is your acceptable duty in the Lord. Fathers, do not provoke your children, or they may lose heart. Oh my, he’s going to talk about that? When modern day people hear these words they almost immediately blanch, i.e., go pale and say, Oh nooooo! There is a reason for that, and we see it daily in the places we go.

For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit. We have just concluded weeks of prayer, a Novena to the Holy Spirit, and three days of the XXVII Holy Synod of the Church. It has been a whirlwind. We often feel that everything is just rushing by. However, the prayer we engaged in and the days of Synod helped us slow down and take account of where we have been, our expectations and hopes for the future, and our setting of a course for strengthening the Church. Much had to be accomplished, the election of bishops, our budget... Beyond all that, our efforts to show forth the Pristine Faith of the early Church in today’s environment.