This week’s memory verse: Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.
Romans 12:12
Pray the week: Lord Jesus, grant that I may always be active in prayer, centering my life in You. Allow me to leave behind a heritage of faithfulness, a testament to Your unceasing goodness. Amen.
Prayer and loyalty.
Will not God then secure the rights of his chosen ones who call out to him day and night? Will he be slow to answer them? I tell you, he will see to it that justice is done for them speedily.
Welcome, thank you for joining us this Sunday as we testify to and act on our faith in our Lord and Savior.
If we listen carefully to the liturgical Propers for today, we will hear these words in reference to prayer: loyal, ever, constant, always, persist, patience, at every opportunity, watch, persevere, never cease, steadfast, call. All these words are action words, none are passive.
These words apply to the woman seeking a just judgment in today’s gospel. She was an engaged individual; she would not let the wicked judge off-the-hook even though she knew he was wicked.
The woman seeking a just judgment had something the wicked judge did not have. While not plainly said, she was a woman of faith who combined her faith and respect for God and others with action.
Jesus really wants us to focus on action, and the primary action we will study this and next week is the action of prayer.
There are five key components to prayer – to making prayer real and effective. It is these actions:
Offer up our desires to God. We are called to pour ourselves out to Him. This seems like the easiest part. We are good at doing this.
Surrender to God. Just as Jesus taught us in the Our Father and in the Garden: God’s will be done, and His will is to be ours. This is harder.
Enter Conversation with God – it means we not only talk, but we also listen. We seek God and attend to His presence and desire for us.
Practice the presence of God. I want to be in God’s presence, never apart from Him. This is about the time and effort we make to seek God’s face, not compartmentalizing Him, but having Him ever before us, permeating our lives.
Own the peace of God. It is in prayer that ultimately, despite all things and in all things, we find peace.
It is key, we churchgoers, that we pay close attention to this, for prayer is our heritage. We come here to do as Jesus asks, joining in fellowship to offer, surrender, converse, practice, and own. Do we do it perfectly? Could our lives be more fully in God’s presence? Could we be more active? Of course! And we should get at it. But we have the start and the commitment, and in the end we will be heard. We are like the woman seeking a just judgment – and you know what? – God will give it to us.
Now I must be very honest with you. Some come to me who would never think to darken the doorway of a church. An emergency, disappointment, a tragedy – please pray for me. This isn’t people trying, but those who won’t until… I do pray in hope that they will be convicted and converted. Almost none are. I often wonder why. Thus, Jesus’ warns: “when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” May He find each of us loyal, active, and wholly His in prayer.
This week’s memory verse: So we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.
Romans 12:5
Pray the week: Lord Jesus, grant that I may see the bond of family within my Kingdom life. Help me to be thankful each day and to work diligently to increase the Kingdom. Amen.
Living as God’s own.
Did you not know I had to be in My Father’s house.
Welcome and thank you for joining us this Sunday as we testify to our faith in our Lord and Savior, join in fellowship in His Holy Name, and celebrate the entire family of faith which is all of us who dwell in the Kingdom.
As I have occasionally commented, our Church takes this time, about mid-October, to transport us into the Christmas season as we consider the childhood of Jesus and His life within the Holy Family; as we consider our lives within the family of faith, the Kingdom of God.
It seems sort of funny, our Church was ahead of the current day Christmas rush as far back as 1914 when this Solemnity was established at Holy Synod.
On this occasion, with its focus on family and a kind-of Christmassy theme we may feel transported back to our own childhoods, the lives of our children and grandchildren, especially in their earliest years, our families, the love, events, and even trials we have shared. Family – and the idea of Christmas – we connect with all that, and that is good. For most people it is the place good is first felt.
Considering all that we experience and share in our own families, how do we feel, what do we think, when we consider, hear about, and ponder the family of God, the Holy Church, the Christian Family?
We could consider a gamut of thoughts and feelings. Just as in any family, there will be those who say all things must change, those who say we need improvements, those who say nothing must ever change. There is a whole range of opinions from one end to the other. However, lets step away from all that and consider something completely different – our Lord’s words: Did you not know I had to be in My Father’s house.
Jesus’ incarnation, birth, and young life in the family ushered in the very thing He preached. It was the message He was meant to bring: The Kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, believe.
In ushering in the Kingdom, in drawing us into one family, Jesus seeks an essential change in us, His Kingdom dwellers and workers. We are called to now focus our priorities and lives on the new reality, the Kingdom reality. We are now to live as God’s own family with the Father at the head and Jesus as our brother, united in the Spirit.
In our new reality, the strictures and structures of family have vastly expanded. Relationship has evolved. We have become a new people, reborn, regenerated, and connected one to another. Being there, we have cause to proclaim: Did you not know I had to be in My Father’s house. Saying so, and truly living as a family, we join in carrying out our responsibilities in our Kingdom work of evangelism, fellowship, and worship. We rejoice as family, as God’s very own.
This week’s memory verse: For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.
Romans 10:10
Pray the week: Lord Jesus, grant me complete acceptance of Your gifts of power, love, and self-control. Assist me by Your Holy Spirit to use these gifts to live Your gospel life and do all You ask of me. Amen.
Accepted and used.
For God did not give us a spirit of cowardice but rather of power and love and self-control.
Welcome and thank you for joining us this Sunday as we testify to our faith in our Lord and Savior and join in fellowship in His Holy Name.
God gives – isn’t that a wonderful statement? God has placed gifts in us, as St. Paul tells Timothy, a spirit of power, love, and self-control.
These gifts from God are a sure antidote to the things that humans face every day – weakness, anger and hatred, and a lack of control over both ourselves and our surroundings.
The interesting thing about gifts is the choice of the one receiving them. The receiver has the choice of accepting and using the gift, accepting the gift and leaving it unused, misusing the gift, or just ignoring it.
Growing up, I, like you was trained to be thankful for gifts, and to accept them with grace. We were also taught that we must not waste what we were given. Perhaps in some ways that accounts for some of the clutter we all have – what to do with that ceramic chicken table setting someone gave us?
God only gives needful and useful gifts. No ceramic chickens from God. We have these gifts of power, love, and self-control but now we must apply them. As professing Christians, that is what we are to do.
Jesus shows us how we are to apply these gifts in everyday situations, during the ordinary of our lives. We are to use our power, love, and self-control as His servants and servants of each other. We are to see with faith, the size of a mustard seed, how God’s gifts intertwine and bind our relationships with Him, our brothers and sisters in the Kingdom, and all of God’s creation.
Jesus wants us to use these gifts in doing all He commands, that is, to walk the gospel path where we give completely of ourselves, where we clothe and feed those in need, where we visit those alone, and where the beatitudes mark our life. We can all look those up.
To those given more, Jesus calls for more. For all of us in relationship with each other, we are to be a representation of Jesus’ dwelling with us, His abiding presence. Look on each other and see Jesus abiding; His gifts ready for application.
Today, as we pause to consider the pets we love or have loved, we see in a special way the implementation of God’s gifts. We recognize a dependency in the ones given to us, for care, for companionship, for a recognition of their innocence and their sharing of unconditional love which we need to reciprocate. God thus uses creation to illustrate in the simplest of ways how the accepted gift is to be used. May we ever show how we have accepted the spirit of power, love, and self-control placed in us and how we have used them as His servants.
“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.
UhOh! It’s October. Pumpkin spice, apple pie and crisps, gourds, the colors of Fall, and all that goes with it. That means we will shortly be bombarded with the need to shop for our Christmas gifts. The disciples gathered (Acts 1:1-11) and asked Jesus a lot of questions. They wanted to know the times and occasions for various future events. Jesus spoke to them rather about gifts. Our knowledge of what is to come is indeed influenced by our experiences, plans, and calendars. We prepare for Holy Synod, decorations, the covering of flower beds in anticipation of frost. Yet we can never fully know our tomorrow. Jesus was not interested in tomorrow or what was coming. That was for His Father (Matthew 24:36). Jesus was interested in and wanted to prepare us for action now. So in addressing His disciples (yes, us), He promised the Holy Spirit, Who would outpour gifts on us.
Gifts are wonderful, aren’t they? God’s gifts are particularly special. But just as with every gift we must make decisions. Will I use it, leave it unused, misuse it, or ignore it. The Holy Spirit has indeed come. We celebrated that fact on June 5th this year. We momentarily reflected on the outpouring of the Spirit’s sevenfold gifts. Perhaps some of us were moved to more deeply explore those gifts, to see where they were active in our lives and the life of our parish and wider Church. And yes, the Holy Spirit has been busy while we reflected! Never doubt that. We have been granted wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord. Of course we should give thanks, but more-so we should be active in setting those gifts to work in our lives, in the life of our parish, and in the wider Church.
Jesus wants us to rightly use the gifts we possess and make ourselves visible in doing His work in the world. No worry about tomorrow. Decide to put the Spirit’s sevenfold gifts to work today and urgently work so that all their qualities shine from us as we show Jesus to the world.
Welcome to October and all the beauty and grace God offers to His faithful!!!
In October we stand as an ally during Domestic Violence Awareness Month (DVAM). We celebrate the month of the Holy Rosary, honor St. Francis with the Blessing of Pets, stand with St. Clare of Assisi in our devotion to the Most Blessed Sacrament, prepare for the XXVI Holy Synod of our Church and the grand celebration of the 125th Anniversary of the Organization of our Church. We continue our series of devotions to the Infant of Prague in the Polish Language — Koronka do Praskiego DzieciÄ…tka Jezus w Waszych intencjach w każdy wtorek o godz. 12:30 po poÅ‚udniu. We celebrate the Solemnity of the Christian Family. Also, note the reminder concerning All Souls Day.
Get you tickets for our Christmas Vigil Raffle with a chance to win $2,500 and check out the great insurance special being offered by our sister organization, the Polish National Union.
Check that and more in our October 2022 Newsletter.
This week’s memory verse: Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.
Hebrews 13:16
Pray the week: Lord Jesus, grant me a spirit of agape love and a realization of the Your call to that charity in all I do. Aid me in closing the chasms of my life by Your grace. Amen.
Where charity prevails.
between us and you a great chasm is established
Welcome and thank you for joining us this day in our worship of our Lord and fellowship in His Holy Name.
There are several things to consider today: The way we live our lives; The need for repentance i.e, change where necessary; and The reality of the Hell we build if we close or limit ourselves toward the other. All of this is summed up in the gospel as the “great chasm.â€
Jesus uses the story of Lazarus and the rich man pointing to the necessity of living a life of love, for a life of love converts us fully, brings us most fully to the likeness of His Heavenly Father. This is the life we are called to, to be the model of God in the world exemplified in love.
Now, the confusing part is our perception of what love is. We mess ourselves up by quantifying and qualifying our love toward others.
The Greeks had it a bit easier for the word Agape means a love that is complete charity, total self-giving. This is the complete love Jesus speaks of and requires from His disciples. We are to live and practice, without quantifying, self-giving toward all we encounter. That powerful love, so often unseen and unexpected in our world, when shown, breaks down barriers and brings people into the Kingdom.
The rich man had none of that. Factually, his love was completely self-centered and could not even contemplate self-giving. He existed is a loveless great chasm, a place of emptiness, a hollow place. He made that chasm impenetrable, uncrossable, and a place of blindness toward anyone else. He never even saw or heard Lazarus under his window.
Could he have repented? Most certainly. The rich man could have opened his ears, eyes, and heart to Lazarus. He could have taken from himself and could have given, inviting Lazarus in to dine with him, not counting the cost. He could have offered his friendship to Lazarus and opened himself to him.
Yet, as we see in Jesus’ telling, the rich man could not even do that after death. There he was, in Hell, being tormented, crying out for pity – pity for himself. His self-centered life lived on into eternity, he remained in the chasm he built. Lazarus remained as nothing, just a potential water bearer and message carrier for the rich man’s needs. Not once does he look up to Abraham and Lazarus and beg forgiveness.
We must examine the places where we have built great chasms in our lives, where our love is less than the full giving Jesus requires. If there is a great chasm, let us work to close it. It is certainly not easy, it wasn’t easy for most of the Apostles and saints at first, but they got there. They closed the chasms of their lives and lived complete love as we must do.
This week’s memory verse: The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?
1 Corinthians 10:16
Pray the week: Lord Jesus, I pray this week for Marianna and Karina, that Your overflowing hope may dwell in them as You now do. Grant that my hope may also be renewed and invigorated. Amen.