Bible Study for the 26th Week in Ordinary Time
  • 9/25 – Jonah 2 – When did I personally learn the lesson that “pride goeth before a fall?” Prayer starter: Lord of the universe, you created us to know, love, and serve you so as to share your joy. Grant us the gift of humility – one way or another.
  • 9/26 – Jonah 3 – When have I seen grace redeem persons or situations that seemed irredeemable? Prayer starter: Lord, your justice is not like our justice, nor are your ways our ways. For which we are very, very grateful.
  • 9/27 – Jonah 4 – Do I allow God’s freedom to exercise control over my heart? Prayer starter: Liberating God, the earth is your footstool and your authority cannot be contained. Teach us to incorporate the freedom of the children of God.
  • 9/28 – Matthew 1:1-17 – Who are my ancestors in faith and how have they helped me practice my faith? Prayer starter: God of my ancestors, help me to remember that I came from you through them and will return to you.
  • 9/29 – Matthew 1:2-6,16 – Who are the women in my own family who brought God to me and brought me to God? Prayer starter: Good God, you who make use of the least likely in society’s eyes, help me to become aware of your presence in them. Help me to see them with your eyes not the eyes of society.
  • 9/30 – Luke 3:23-38 – How old were you when you started to do God’s work? Prayer starter: God, you who created humankind in your image and likeness, help me to discover you in everyone I meet.
  • 10/1 – Matthew 1:18-25 – Are you willing to feed, help, and house people at risk in your home? Prayer starter: All-loving God, help me to become a righteous person, one who lives according to your law as Joseph did. Help me to be attentive to your revelation in my dreams.

Why do we celebrate Spójnia Sunday?

The month of September has many meanings to many different people. First, and probably foremost, parents look forward to the beginning of the new school year. Farmers know that September means the beginning of the fall harvest of God’s gifts to us. Polish National Catholics know that September has been set aside by the Church to honor its fraternal organization, the Polish National Union of America, “Spójnia.”

Many people ask, why does the Church celebrate a fraternal organization in a special way? The answer to this question is an easy one: because the Polish National Union of America had done and given more to the Church than any other organization to date. The Polish National Union was born and grew from the heart of the Polish National Catholic Church. These two great institutions share the same membership, the same concerns for the people. The same man, the late Prime Bishop Francis Hodur, organized both. Both organizations stand for the same principle, that all men and women should and do have the right to choose their destinies, no mater what their ethnic backgrounds. In other words, it would be every hard to separate in the inter-mingled struggles and accomplishments of the two.

Over the past 100 years, the support of Spójnia for the Polish National Catholic Church has been constantly shown through financial aid to parishes in the form of mortgages, educational materials and financial stipends; and recreational aid to all by support given to many varied and widely held events. Our parish has benefited greatly over the years through these various programs: our college students have received stipends, and, in past years, the van traveling to the “Zlot” was funded through the PNU.

Be it in times of hardship or time of good fortune, Spójnia has always been there. Offering a helping hand or a shoulder to rest upon. Giving words of encouragement or inspiration. No matter what the situation, what area of the country or the world, Spójnia would always try to help. Many times the help was meager. Many times it would just be words of encouragement, but at least people know that someone cared. People know that we are “joining hands to touch lives” because we we’re all sisters and brothers working together for the happiness and betterment of all.

By being members of the PNCC and Spójnia, we have joined hands in a partnership that has grown over the past 100 years. A partnership that today can boast over 144 parishes in the United States and Canada partnered with a fraternal with over $45M in assets.

This is a partnership where people care about each other, where love and brotherhood are the two main ingredients. A partnership where each other’s rights and ideas have meaning. A partnership where the partners, the PNCC and the PNU of America, will always be there when needed.

As we celebrate this day, let us be thankful for those who determined this organization to be necessary and that it continue to be a source of fraternalism. May we all be members. Young and old alike can all benefit from the Spójnia.

Bible Study for the 25th Week in Ordinary Time
  • 9/18 – Zechariah 11:4-17 and Zechariah 12-14 – Where do I look for, or experience, the holy presence of God? Prayer starter: God of all times and places, you infuse our world with holiness. Open our eyes to the sacred in every common thing, in our sisters and brothers, and in ourselves.
  • 9/19 – Malachi 1,2 – Do I ever cut corners on religious observance or moral obligations? Prayer starter: All-seeing and all-knowing God, your benevolent gaze is on the whole world and all of human history. Teach us how to live rightly in the spirit of your truth.
  • 9/20 – Malachi 3,4 – How do I demonstrate my loyalty to God: in prayer, ritual, law or service? Prayer starter: Most Holy God, we are not worthy to receive you into our presence. Only say the word and we will be healed.
  • 9/21 – Joel 1 and Joel 2:1-11 – How much of my fear is based on global forces and events? Prayer starter: In the spirit of humility. Lord, we acknowledge our mortality and frailty. We know that life and death are always in your hands.
  • 9/22 – Joel 2:12-32 and Joel 3 – How often do you put on the spirit of contrition and return to God again? Prayer starter: God of mercy and forgiveness, you welcome sinners home and seek lost sheep who have strayed from you. Give us the courage to meet you in the valley of decision.
  • 9/23 – Obadiah 1 – When have you experienced the flash point between love and hate? Prayer starter: Lord, we ask you to heal the wounds that divide those who are closest: In the Middle East, in tribal Africa, and in racially divided America.
  • 9/24 – Jonah 1 – When has humor helped me to see that my worldview is in need of correction? Prayer starter: You are the Lord of the good story, and you provide us with a Bible full of characters aimed at our instruction. Help us to learn from them all: saints, sinners, and clowns.

Bible Study for the Solemnity of Brotherly Love and the 24th Week in Ordinary Time
  • 9/11 – Nahum 2:2-13 and Nahum 3 – What criteria can be used to justify human violence? Prayer starter: God of light and darkness, Lord of life and death, all authority comes from you and belongs to you in heaven and on earth. Teach us wisdom in using the power in our hands.
  • 9/12 – Habakkuk 1 – Under what circumstances have I or might I challenge God’s ways? Prayer starter: All-knowing God, we are unable to fathom the twin mysteries of evil and suffering. Strengthen our trust in your holy purposes even when we cannot see them.
  • 9/13 – Habakkuk 2-3 – Do I believe that God is ultimately the tamer of the world’s chaos? Prayer starter: Lord of history, you are not bound to time or place and you see what is not known to us. Help us to live and act courageously to bring your purposes to fulfillment.
  • 9/14 – Haggai 1 – How do I decide when to wait for God and when to act myself? Prayer starter: May we never forget, Lord, that our allegiance to you comes before every other obligation. With you all things are possible.
  • 9/15 – Zechariah 1-4 – Could it be that my plans for my life are much smaller than God’s plans for me? Prayer starter: Saving God, you ordained that a shoot should sprout from the dead stump of Jesse, after hope of human kings had failed. Open our minds to your amazing possibilities.
  • 9/16 – Zechariah 5-8 – What’s the good news — and bad news — about living at the center of destiny? Prayer starter: The desire of our heart, O Lord, is to seek and find you at the center of our lives. Dislodge the ego that keeps us clinging to the place of privilege.
  • 9/17 – Zechariah 9-10 and Zechariah 11:1-3 – Who has taught you wisdom, and how do you express your gratitude? Prayer starter: All wisdom has its origins in you, eternal God. Help us persevere in gaining the wisdom that our world needs and hungers for.

Observance of The Feast-day of St. Francis of Assisi and the Blessing of Animals

As you may have heard, there have been many pets and animals that were abandoned in the flooded areas around us and in our state’s southern tier. Various agencies in and around our area have taken up the search and rescue and rehabilitation of those animals found homeless. Although we could not be involved with the agencies that are trying to match up the animals with their owners, we could be helpful in those plans that will help to provide care until that reunion may take place.

Therefore, we are asking that if you have a pet or not, to stop by and add your prayers during a short service on Saturday, October 1st (the actual Feast-day is the 4th), at 10am. Also, if you could bring along some items to donate: dry or canned pet food, cat litter, leashes, or other items (no perishable food) you would like to donate. Some early contact with these agencies has been made.

Our prayer this year will have special import since there are a number of animals we will ask St. Francis to intercede for and ask God to protect and re-unite with their caregivers. Please add your prayer, voice, and donation. In advance, THANKS!

Reflection for the Solemnity of Brotherly Love

Is not life full of opportunities for learning love? Every man and woman every day has a thousand of them. The world is not a playground; it is a schoolroom. Life
is not a holiday, but an education. And the one eternal lesson for us all is how better we can love.

What makes a person a good artist, a good sculptor, or a good musician? Practice. What makes a good person? Practice. Love is not a thing of enthusiastic emotion. It is a rich, strong, vigorous expression of the whole Christian character — the Christ-like nature in its fullest development. And the constituents of this great character are only to be built up by ceaseless practice.

Rummage and Bake Sale

We will be holding our annual rummage and bake sale on Saturday, October 22nd.

Members of the parish have been stockpiling items that are going to be offered to our friends, neighbors, and local community.

Parishioners can start bringing in additional items now and place them on the parish hall stage.

In all things, we give hearty thanks for your kind consideration of these efforts we put forth in our parochial experience together.

Bible Study for the 23rd Week in Ordinary Time
  • 9/4 – Micah 1-3,6 – Which of Micah’s pillars – justice, kindness, and humility – challenges me now? Prayer starter: God of justice, you demand that those who love you serve their neighbor most in need. Bend my will toward your justice.
  • 9/5 – Micah 4,5 – How does your leadership set the tone in your circles? Prayer starter: Merciful God, you sent your son Jesus to be our Prince of Peace. Help us to be faithful messengers of the peace the world cannot give.
  • 9/6 – Micah 7 – Do I spend more time in an attitude of criticism or one of hope? Prayer starter: You know well, Lord, that we need prophets to shout and jolt us out of our complacency in the face of the world’s injustice. But please continue to send us prophets of hope too.
  • 9/7 – Zephaniah 1 – Are there aspects of the world situation that I would like to see swept away? Prayer starter: God of power and might, we know that you can do with the world as you see fit. How good it is that rather than destroy, you desire to save it and us.
  • 9/8 – Zephaniah 2 – Have I ever seen a biblical-looking “day of the animals” on the evening news? Prayer starter: Creator of all, you made humanity to be the gracious stewards of the rest of creation. Forgive us when we fail to rise to the task you set for us.
  • 9/9 – Zephaniah 3 – Is a smaller, faithful community better than a larger, careless one? Prayer starter: Nothing is too small to gain your attention and care, God of sparrows and stray hairs. Watch over each of us in our littleness, for we need your protection.
  • 9/10 – Nahum 1 and Nahum 2:1-2 – Have you ever rejoiced when a person you judged as bad got what was coming? Prayer starter: Just and merciful God, you alone have the right to pass judgement over the life of a human being. Vengeance is yours and yours alone.