Reflection for the Solemnity of the Institution of the PNCC

If I’m part of the vine…
can I drink more wine?

“I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.”

We have been studying family as our Lenten theme. Today, we lighten our Lenten practice a bit and engage in a celebration of – no wait – yes family. Amazing isn’t it?
Today we celebrate the organization of our Holy Polish National Catholic Church.

Church can be a lot of things to a lot of people, but one thing it certainly isn’t is a stagnant shell of a corporation based on dusty old books.

Church is the reality of our relationship as family in Christ. There are so many quotes about that, but a key one is taken from St. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, Chapter 4:4-6:

There is one body and one Spirit… one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of us all.

We have been grafted onto Jesus. He is the vine and we are the braches. That makes us one being, one entity, and sharers in His nourishment and love.

If Church were dusty old books, it would not be a living entity. If it were a stagnant shell, we would have no reason to be part of it, or feel alive in it.

Being part of the vine does give us reason to celebrate, to become intoxicated with the happiness that comes from being part of the living body of Christ.

Our Holy Church is a beacon and the joy of life. It is a place of happiness, reconciliation, mutual labor and support, the one place where we can endeavor together to reach God.

In the Holy Church we find ourselves already connected to God, part of Him, members of His family – and as St. Paul focuses on, one in every aspect of who we are.

We are not strangers who bump into each other on occasion. We are Polish National Catholics who live and abide in Jesus Christ, who bring His life filled Church, His life-giving message, to the world. There we will gather and join others to the life-giving vine, the place where we will all drink the wine of joy!

Bible Study for the Second Week of Lent
  • 3/4 – Matthew 12:48-50 – Lord Jesus, grant that I may see a brother or sister in the face of every person who seeks to do Your Father’s will.
  • 3/5 – Romans 12:4-5 – Lord Jesus, thank You for making me part of Your one body, the Holy Church. Grant that I may joyously use the gifts You have given me in fulfilling my role in the Church.
  • 3/6 – 1 John 4:20 – Lord Jesus, grant that I may never shut the door to anyone who seeks You, for You created every person in Your image, and all are my brothers and sisters.
  • 3/7 – Hebrews 10:25 – Lord Jesus, grant me the perseverance to worship You in the company of my brothers and sisters, even when I am tired or discouraged.
  • 3/8 – 1 John 4:12 – God, every man and woman is created in Your image. Grant that I may ever recognize that fact.
  • 3/9 – Galatians 3:28 – Lord Jesus, dispel the sin of prejudice and bigotry from among us. Grant that we may not relish in division, but celebrate in our faith in You.
  • 3/10 – Hebrews 13:1 – Lord Jesus, show me where I have failed to treat others as brother or sister, and grant me the gift of repentance and the will to reconcile.

Pray the week: Lord Jesus, may I recognize my brother/sister in the face of every person.

Reflection for the Second Sunday of Lent

Can I trade in this kid?
Ummm, NO!

“God put Abraham to the test… ‘Abraham, Abraham!’ ‘Here I am!’ he answered. ‘Do not lay your hand on the boy. Do not do the least thing to him. I know now how devoted you are to God, since you did not withhold from me your own beloved son.’”

Relatedness – The dictionary tells us that relatedness means a particular manner of connectedness or relationship. Unrelatedness means the lack of any particular manner of connectedness.

We might wonder if Abraham had any troubles with his son Isaac. Maybe, at one time or another, he regretted his relatedness to Isaac, and thought, maybe I could trade this kid in for something better.

God puts Abraham to the test, he asks him to sacrifice his son. Scripture tells us that Abraham loved his son, but maybe, somewhere in his mind he thought, maybe God is going to give me an even better son on trade. It is one of the unfortunate consequences of our humanity, our ability to set aside our relatedness. We all have someone with whom we have a strained, distant, or disconnected relationship.

Being part of God’s family, being the brothers and sisters of Jesus and of each other can put us to the test. How do we exercise our relatedness – how do we keep connected?

God Himself has told us that we are connected, we are related, and we are part of one body. He never abandons His relationship with us because we share the DNA of Jesus; it is imprinted in our hearts and souls.

Our Lenten journey is about correcting those instances where we feel we have grown unrelated. We have to recapture those markers of a healthy relationship with God. We have to rebuild what is strained between sister and brother.

We bear the signs of family, our shared birth in water and the Holy Spirit, our shared language of prayer and praise, the way we work together and support each other. We know, as members of God’s family, there are no trades allowed. The Father gave His Son for this family. What Jesus did to bring us together as one family is worth rebuilding; wherever it might be strained. Let’s set to that task.

67th Annual PNCC Bowling Tournament coming to Schenectady

We invite you to Schenectady:

On behalf of the Tournament Committee for the 67th Annual PNCC/YMS of R Bowling Tournament, please accept this invitation to participate in this year’s event, sponsored by our parish, Holy Name of Jesus in Schenectady, NY. The Tournament will begin on Friday, May 18th and conclude on Sunday, May 20th.

Schedule of Events:

Thursday, May 17, 2012 – Solemnity of the Ascension of our Lord

Friday, May 18, 2012

Saturday, May 19, 2012

Sunday, May 20, 2012

Accommodations:

We recommend:

Ramada Plaza Albany
3 Watervliet Ave. Ext.
Albany, NY 12206 US

Check in: After 3:00 PM
Check out: Before 11:00 AM
Phone: 518-438-8431
Fax: 518-438-8356

Hotel website

The Ramada Plaza Albany hotel is right off I-90, Exit 5 and is right down the street from our Friday and Saturday evening venues (almost walking distance). The hotel’s location, adjacent to the I-90 interchange allows for quick access to the I-87 Northway which will get you to Spare Time Lanes and Holy Name of Jesus. The hotel is also close to great sightseeing in New York’s Capital, shopping and entertainment.

The hotel offers a free deluxe breakfast buffet. There is a fitness center as well as indoor and outdoor pools. You can also stay connected to home with free Wi-Fi Internet access. The hotel is pet-friendly. Rooms feature in-room microwaves and refrigerators, guest laundry services and free parking for vehicles of any size.

Venues:

A = Albany Polish American Citizens Club, 110 Commerce Avenue, Albany, NY 12206
B = Spare Time Lanes, 375 Troy Schenectady Road, Latham, NY 12110
C = Holy Name of Jesus Parish, 1040 Pearl Street, Schenectady, NY 12303

Registration and Forms:

You may click on any of the following links to download these forms to your computer, or just click and print them from this website.

Please return all forms and fees by April 15, 2012. Make all checks payable to: 2012 Tournament Committee.

Mail completed packets to:

Holy Name of Jesus
Attn: Deacon Jim Konicki
1040 Pearl St.
Schenectady, NY 12303-­‐1846

Thank you and we look forward to seeing you in New York’s Electric City – Schenectady for some powerful bowling action and competition, great fellowship, and fun over a Spirit filled weekend.

Bible Study for the First Week of Lent
  • 2/26 – Ephesians 3:14-15 – Father, grant that we may see You as the center of our family – its light, peace, perseverance, and joy.
  • 2/27 – 1 Peter 2:17 – Lord Jesus, help me to see my inter-relatedness with others, our mutual membership in Your family. Grant that I may honor and cherish every member of our family.
  • 2/28 – 3 John 10 – Heavenly Father, I thank you for giving me a Church that casts none out, and opens its doors to all who seek You. Grant that my arms may be open to all who seek You and that I never shut the door, nor cast anyone out, because in doing so I fail in my duty to love.
  • 2/29 – Galatians 3:26-29 – Lord Jesus, thank You for rebirth and regeneration through the waters of baptism. Grant that I may never draw distinctions, but see only one fellowship in You.
  • 3/1 – 1 Timothy 5:1-2 – Lord, grant that I may ever honor and cherish every member of the human family as a mother, father, sister, and brother. May I respect each person’s humanity and the gifts they bring to our family of faith.
  • 3/2 – 1 Corinthians 8:5-6 – Holy Trinity, may we not consider You with the eyes of the mind, but rather rejoice in love, unity, and fellowship that surpasses all understanding.
  • 3/3 – John 3:3-5 – Lord Jesus, give Your enlightening grace to many so that they may enter into the one family of faith through baptism and the Spirit. Grant that my example of Christian life opens the path to You and never shuts the door.

Pray the week: Lord Jesus, help me to see my place in the family of faith.

Reflection for the First Sunday of Lent

Hey, this is my boat!
You cannot go alone…

“God said to Noah and to his sons with him: “See, I am now establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you.”

Consider Adam and Eve, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, David, Mary, John the Baptist, Jesus, and Peter – what do all these, and the rest of the heroes of the Bible have in common? They were all members of a family.

Our Lenten theme is all about family. We see that God makes His promises not just to one person, but to the human family.

God always deals with family, with people’s relationships with each other. God isn’t building His kingdom on hermits and loners. Rather, He is looking to us as His children, and a single body (the body of Christ), as a community that is defined as a family.

Remember that Jesus always referred to His Father as our Father. This wasn’t some sort of light saying, just to make us feel good. Jesus meant what He said. His Father is our Father.

Jesus came to rebuild His Father’s family and He did so on Calvary – reconnecting us to God.

God is our Father, and we are Jesus’ brothers and sisters. This makes us His family and family to each other. We have even taken the steps necessary to be born into that family, through the waters of Baptism, by our regeneration.

There’s a lot to study this Lent, so let us begin our focus on the fact that we are members of one body – the Church, the body of Christ, and that makes us one family. With that comes a knowledge of how we were born into this family, how are related, how we relate to the Father, Jesus, and each other, our responsibilities as family members, our importance to the family, and the inheritance that is in store for members of God’s family.

Brother, or brethren, is found 319 times in the New Testament. Child, or children, is used 168 times in the New Testament. God didn’t send Noah onto the boat alone, and doesn’t make His promises to only a select few. His promises are for all of us as a family. He doesn’t want us to go it alone. He is our loving Father.

Ash Wednesday

First reading: Joel 2:12-18
Psalm: Ps 51:3-6,12-14,17
Epistle: 2 Corinthians 5:20-21 and 2 Corinthians 6:1-2
Gospel: Matthew 6:1-6,16-18

Even now, says the LORD,
return to me with your whole heart

Focus (this morning):

Today, the first day of Lent. After three weeks of preparation you would think I would wake up ready to go. Well, this morning was not that kind of morning. Instead of waking prepared with Lent in my heart and mind, I woke in a haze. I focused on what I normally am, rather than what I should be becoming. I was self-focused. In the midst of preparing chicken and baloney sandwiches it finally hit me — it is Ash Wednesday.

It wasn’t just the no meat Lenten sacrifice, it was the sudden realization that I had a long way to go this Lent. It would be a journey from inward self-sufficiency, self-focus, to becoming emptied.

Emptiness:

Think of an iron bar. It is strong, complete, self-sufficient. You cannot add anything to it or change its nature. It is what it is.

Think now of a musical instrument: woodwinds, brass, guitars, or violins. These instruments are hollow. Their emptiness is intentional. These instruments are empty so that they may reflect what their master does – produce and echo music that is beautiful.

For my part, and for many of us, we exist like iron bars. We are who we are. We feel rather complete and total, solid, self-sufficient. Our task this Lent is to change from iron bars to musical instruments.

Process of emptying:

Lent is a process of emptying, of moving from the iron bar to a state of emptiness, away from self to becoming a reflection of God’s music, God’s light, God’s way.

Full of God:

In Lent we work to empty ourselves so that we become full of God. We work to reflect His light and His music. We recognize once again that He is the Master of our lives. We wipe the sleep from our eyes and clear the fog from our heads so that we can see our lives as part of God’s life; God who exists within us and within our brothers and sisters.

We are not separated, God here, us there. We are unified, together.

Lent gives us the opportunity to have God once again permeate, fill, encompass and saturate our thoughts and actions, our words, our deeds.

St. Paul reminds us that we cannot be self-sufficient iron bars because:

He died for all, so that those who live might live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died and was raised for them (2 Corinthians 5:15).

We have to live with a focus on being filled by God.

Full of family:

If you read the sign outside the church, you will note that our theme for Lent is God’s cell therapy. In Jesus we have been changed from a random group of individuals to adopted children of God, and brothers and sisters in faith. Our old mortal cells are being replaced and we are a new being, a new people, and members of one family of faith in Jesus Christ.

We must empty ourselves so that we become better family members. This is not just to our immediate or biological family, but to all the members of the family of God.

Throughout Lent we will focus on what makes us family, as well as the joys and responsibilities as members of the family of God.

Reconciling family:

Today we begin the process of reconciling, of emptying ourselves. Things like our Lenten self denial and sacrifice are makers along the road toward our becoming the people we ought to be. We are changing from iron bars – but we will not become empty, music-less instruments either. We will become, by the time we reach Easter, and for the days ahead in our lives, members of God’s family, each others brothers and sisters, and gloriously, the reflection of God’s light and music in the world.

Inheritance:

Our work, the road ahead is not without a promised reward. That promise is from God – that we will enter life everlasting as one family, as one people, as God’s children and as brothers and sisters. We have our inheritance before us. It won’t be paid out to iron bars, but to family filled with the light and music of God. Amen.

Bible Study for Quinquagesima Week
  • 2/19 – Luke 7:35-50 – Lord Jesus, I love you and I know you love me. Grant me the strength to come to you with my failings, as this woman did, so I may leave free.
  • 2/20 – Luke 15:11-32 – Lord Jesus, You are generous in your forgiveness. Grant me the grace to forgive generously, freely, and extravagently.
  • 2/21 – Luke 19:1-10 – Lord Jesus, You restored Zacchaeus, and he generously restored to others. Grant me the same generosity in making right my relationships with others.
  • 2/22 – John 8:1-11 – Lord Jesus, help me to reflect on my own failings so that I may reconcile with You and Your Church. Grant me the grace to avoid judgment of others.
  • 2/23 – Acts 9:1-19 – Lord, grant me the strength to go before those who have wronged me, and with faith forgive them as You forgive me.
  • 2/24 – Matthew 18:21-22 – Lord, grant that I may not count the cost of forgiveness, but rather forgive generously and freely.
  • 2/25 – Matthew 7:1-5 – Lord Jesus, grant me perseverance throughout this Lent to forgive others and to focus only on my own shortcomings. In this process may I be reconciled with You, Your Church, and all my brothers and sisters.

Pray the week: Lord Jesus, teach me to forgive as You forgive.


Reflection for Quinquagesima Sunday

Swim away!
Maybe it would be better if…

“Child, your sins are forgiven.”

Fishing is a two-way relationship. It involves work, struggle, and tension. It also involves pain and trauma for the fish.

When a fisherman hooks a fish, which of them is really in charge? Most think the fisherman. He has the brains, the tools, and the power to overcome and land his catch.

Every fisherman knows that for every fish caught, many more get away. Some snap lines that trail behind them as they swim away. Others tear the hook out in the struggle, and swim away wounded.

Yet some fish figure out a simpler, braver path. Rather than pull, dash, or thrash, they swim toward shore, and approach the fisherman. When fish do so, you’re bound to see a frantic person reeling like crazy shouting “No, no, no—not towards me!” But if the fish persists, the line goes slack, and the hook comes out with a flick of its head.

In cases where fish swim toward their enemy, they often gain freedom from pain, and leave dragging nothing behind them.

Today, God asks us to consider His forgiveness and the way we forgive each other.

Like the fish and fisherman, we are in relationships with each other. At times those relationships can be marked by struggle, tension, and pain.

When we choose, as a result of hurt (those hooks that stab at us) to fight and flee, we end up either dragging the memories of those hurts behind us, or we end up deeply wounded.

God asks us to be the smart fish, to swim towards those who have hurt us. As we do, we free ourselves from the barbs that hurt us and we are free.

The pain doesn’t go away easily, and true reconciliation and the rebuilding of relationships is a much longer process, but it has to start with our going toward those who hurt us. There we offer our forgiveness.

When we hurt God through sin, we will always find Him swimming toward us, with complete forgiveness. As we enter Lent, let us resolve to do the same with each other.