In his three volume book “The Life of the Venerable Servant of God Vincent de Paul, Founder and First Superior General of the Congregation of the Mission” Louis Abelly, Bishop of Rodez quotes his story of what happened in Folleville: “Monsieur Vincent said: It was January 1617, when all this happened, on the Feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul, the twenty-fifth of the month. This lady asked me to preach in the church of Folleville to persuade the local people to make a general confession. I did this, pointing out the importance and usefulness of this practice. I showed them how to do so worthily. God had such regard for the confidence and faith of this good lady (for the great number and enormity of my sins stood in the way of my effecting any fruit) that he blessed this sermon. All those present were moved by God, and came to make their general confession. I continued my instruction, disposing them to receive the sacrament well, and then began to hear their confessions. Even with the help of another priest who was with me, however, the press of those waiting to receive the sacrament was too great. Madame sent to request the Jesuit Fathers of Amiens to come help us. She wrote to the rector, who came himself, but not having enough time available he sent another Jesuit, Father Fourche, to help us in hearing confessions, preaching and catechizing. By the grace of God, these occupations kept us busy.
We next went to other villages in the vicinity which also belonged to Madame, to do the same as we had done in the first. We had large crowds, and God gave us his full blessing. This is how the first mission was accomplished. That it took place on the feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul was due solely to God’s design.” Read the whole chapter eight of book one

These two slideshows based on Theodore Maynard’s book “Apostle of charity:the life of St. Vincent de Paul” present the primary goals of the Congregation of Mission. Slideshows  are available in Polish, too. Find more documents on the origins and spirituality of the Vincentian Family at  Vinformation.famvin.org website.

“This mission in Folleville was the first given by Monsieur Vincent and has always been considered as the seed for all the others to follow. Every year, on the twenty-fifth of January, he and his Congregation thanked God for all the graces given in his infinite bounty to this first preaching. He always wanted this feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul to be regarded as the founding date of the Congregation of the Mission, although it was to be eight more years before this first seed grew and multiplied. He never thought that this tiny mustard plant would serve as the basis for the establishment of a new Congregation in the Church, as later came about. This is why the missionaries of the Congregation celebrate the feast of the Conversion of the Apostle, in memory of the way this new Paul, their father and founder, happily completed on this day his first mission.” (cf. Abelly, Book One, Chapter Eight)

Crism Mass is the only liturgical service in the Church in the morning of Holy Thursday. It is celebrated in cathedral churches around the world by the Bishop and his priests.  The Pope, as Bishop of Rome, as well as other Bishops in their dioceses, blessed the oils to be used in the sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation, Anointing the sick and Holy Orders, throughout the coming year.

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Dear Brothers and Sisters,

At the heart of this morning’s liturgy is the blessing of the holy oils – the oil for anointing catechumens, the oil for anointing the sick, and the chrism for the great sacraments that confer the Holy Spirit: confirmation, priestly ordination, episcopal ordination. In the sacraments the Lord touches us through the elements of creation. The unity between creation and redemption is made visible. The sacraments are an expression of the physicality of our faith, which embraces the whole person, body and soul. Bread and wine are fruits of the earth and work of human hands. The Lord chose them to be bearers of his presence. Oil is the symbol of the Holy Spirit and at the same time it points us towards Christ: the word “Christ” (Messiah) means “the anointed one”. The humanity of Jesus, by virtue of the Son’s union with the Father, is brought into communion with the Holy Spirit and is thus “anointed” in a unique way, penetrated by the Holy Spirit. What happened symbolically to the kings and priests of the Old Testament when they were instituted into their ministry by the anointing with oil, takes place in Jesus in all its reality: his humanity is penetrated by the power of the Holy Spirit. He opens our humanity for the gift of the Holy Spirit. The more we are united to Christ, the more we are filled with his Spirit, with the Holy Spirit. We are called “Christians”: “anointed ones” – people who belong to Christ and hence have a share in his anointing, being touched by his Spirit. I wish not merely to be called Christian, but also to be Christian, said Saint Ignatius of Antioch. Let us allow these holy oils, which are consecrated at this time, to remind us of the task that is implicit in the word “Christian”, let us pray that, increasingly, we may not only be called Christian but may actually be such.

In today’s liturgy, three oils are blessed, as I mentioned earlier. They express three essential dimensions of the Christian life on which we may now reflect. First, there is the oil of catechumens. This oil indicates a first way of being touched by Christ and by his Spirit – an inner touch, by which the Lord draws people close to himself. Through this first anointing, which takes place even prior to baptism, our gaze is turned towards people who are journeying towards Christ – people who are searching for faith, searching for God. The oil of catechumens tells us that it is not only we who seek God: God himself is searching for us. The fact that he himself was made man and came down into the depths of human existence, even into the darkness of death, shows us how much God loves his creature, man. Driven by love, God has set out towards us. “Seeking me, you sat down weary … let such labour not be in vain!”, we pray in the Dies Irae. God is searching for me. Do I want to recognize him? Do I want to be known by him, found by him? God loves us. He comes to meet the unrest of our hearts, the unrest of our questioning and seeking, with the unrest of his own heart, which leads him to accomplish the ultimate for us. That restlessness for God, that journeying towards him, so as to know and love him better, must not be extinguished in us. In this sense we should always remain catechumens. “Constantly seek his face”, says one of the Psalms (105:4). Saint Augustine comments as follows: God is so great as to surpass infinitely all our knowing and all our being. Knowledge of God is never exhausted. For all eternity, with ever increasing joy, we can always continue to seek him, so as to know him and love him more and more. “Our heart is restless until it rests in you”, said Saint Augustine at the beginning of his Confessions. Yes, man is restless, because whatever is finite is too little. But are we truly restless for him? Have we perhaps become resigned to his absence, do we not seek to be self-sufficient? Let us not allow our humanity to be diminished in this way! Let us remain constantly on a journey towards him, longing for him, always open to receive new knowledge and love!

Then there is the oil for anointing the sick. Arrayed before us is a host of suffering people: those who hunger and thirst, victims of violence in every continent, the sick with all their sufferings, their hopes and their moments without hope, the persecuted, the downtrodden, the broken-hearted. Regarding the first mission on which Jesus sent the disciples, Saint Luke tells us: “he sent them out to preach the kingdom of God and to heal” (9:2). Healing is one of the fundamental tasks entrusted by Jesus to the Church, following the example that he gave as he travelled throughout the land healing the sick. To be sure, the Church’s principal task is to proclaim the Kingdom of God. But this very proclamation must be a process of healing: “bind up the broken-hearted”, we heard in today’s first reading from the prophet Isaiah (61:1). The proclamation of God’s Kingdom, of God’s unlimited goodness, must first of all bring healing to broken hearts. By nature, man is a being in relation. But if the fundamental relationship, the relationship with God, is disturbed, then all the rest is disturbed as well. If our relationship with God is disturbed, if the fundamental orientation of our being is awry, we cannot truly be healed in body and soul. For this reason, the first and fundamental healing takes place in our encounter with Christ who reconciles us to God and mends our broken hearts. But over and above this central task, the Church’s essential mission also includes the specific healing of sickness and suffering. The oil for anointing the sick is the visible sacramental expression of this mission. Since apostolic times, the healing vocation has matured in the Church, and so too has loving solicitude for those who are distressed in body and soul. This is also the occasion to say thank you to those sisters and brothers throughout the world who bring healing and love to the sick, irrespective of their status or religious affiliation. From Elizabeth of Hungary, Vincent de Paul, Louise de Marillac, Camillus of Lellis to Mother Teresa – to recall but a few names – we see, lighting up the world, a radiant procession of helpers streaming forth from God’s love for the suffering and the sick. For this we thank the Lord at this moment. For this we thank all those who, by virtue of their faith and love, place themselves alongside the suffering, thereby bearing definitive witness to the goodness of God himself. The oil for anointing the sick is a sign of this oil of the goodness of heart that these people bring – together with their professional competence – to the suffering. Even without speaking of Christ, they make him manifest.

In third place, finally, is the most noble of the ecclesial oils, the chrism, a mixture of olive oil and aromatic vegetable oils. It is the oil used for anointing priests and kings, in continuity with the great Old Testament traditions of anointing. In the Church this oil serves chiefly for the anointing of confirmation and ordination. Today’s liturgy links this oil with the promise of the prophet Isaiah: “You shall be called the priests of the Lord, men shall speak of you as the ministers of our God” (61:6). The prophet makes reference here to the momentous words of commission and promise that God had addressed to Israel on Sinai: “You shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Ex 19:6). In and for the vast world, which was largely ignorant of God, Israel had to be as it were a shrine of God for all peoples, exercising a priestly function vis-à-vis the world. It had to bring the world to God, to open it up to him. In his great baptismal catechesis, Saint Peter applied this privilege and this commission of Israel to the entire community of the baptized, proclaiming: “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, that you may declare the wonderful deeds of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light. Once you were no people but now you are God’s people” (1 Pet 2:9f.) Baptism and confirmation are an initiation into this people of God that spans the world; the anointing that takes place in baptism and confirmation is an anointing that confers this priestly ministry towards mankind. Christians are a priestly people for the world. Christians should make the living God visible to the world, they should bear witness to him and lead people towards him. When we speak of this task in which we share by virtue of our baptism, it is no reason to boast. It poses a question to us that makes us both joyful and anxious: are we truly God’s shrine in and for the world? Do we open up the pathway to God for others or do we rather conceal it? Have not we – the people of God – become to a large extent a people of unbelief and distance from God? Is it perhaps the case that the West, the heartlands of Christianity, are tired of their faith, bored by their history and culture, and no longer wish to know faith in Jesus Christ? We have reason to cry out at this time to God: “Do not allow us to become a ‘non-people’! Make us recognize you again! Truly, you have anointed us with your love, you have poured out your Holy Spirit upon us. Grant that the power of your Spirit may become newly effective in us, so that we may bear joyful witness to your message!

For all the shame we feel over our failings, we must not forget that today too there are radiant examples of faith, people who give hope to the world through their faith and love. When Pope John Paul II is beatified on 1 May, we shall think of him, with hearts full of thankfulness, as a great witness to God and to Jesus Christ in our day, as a man filled with the Holy Spirit. Alongside him, we think of the many people he beatified and canonized, who give us the certainty that even today God’s promise and commission do not fall on deaf ears.

I turn finally to you, dear brothers in the priestly ministry. Holy Thursday is in a special way our day. At the hour of the last Supper, the Lord instituted the new Testament priesthood. “Sanctify them in the truth” (Jn 17:17), he prayed to the Father, for the Apostles and for priests of all times. With great gratitude for the vocation and with humility for all our shortcomings, we renew at this hour our “yes” to the Lord’s call: yes, I want to be intimately united to the Lord Jesus, in self-denial, driven on by the love of Christ. Amen.

© Copyright 2011 – Libreria Editrice Vaticana

Msza Krzyżma Świętego – homilia Benedykta XVI, 21 kwietnia 2011

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Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Dear young people!

It is a moving experience each year on Palm Sunday as we go up the mountain with Jesus, towards the Temple, accompanying him on his ascent. On this day, throughout the world and across the centuries, young people and people of every age acclaim him, crying out: “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”

But what are we really doing when we join this procession as part of the throng which went up with Jesus to Jerusalem and hailed him as King of Israel? Is this anything more than a ritual, a quaint custom? Does it have anything to do with the reality of our life and our world? To answer this, we must first be clear about what Jesus himself wished to do and actually did. After Peter’s confession of faith in Caesarea Philippi, in the northernmost part of the Holy Land, Jesus set out as a pilgrim towards Jerusalem for the feast of Passover. He was journeying towards the Temple in the Holy City, towards that place which for Israel ensured in a particular way God’s closeness to his people. He was making his way towards the common feast of Passover, the memorial of Israel’s liberation from Egypt and the sign of its hope of definitive liberation. He knew that what awaited him was a new Passover and that he himself would take the place of the sacrificial lambs by offering himself on the cross. He knew that in the mysterious gifts of bread and wine he would give himself for ever to his own, and that he would open to them the door to a new path of liberation, to fellowship with the living God. He was making his way to the heights of the Cross, to the moment of self-giving love. The ultimate goal of his pilgrimage was the heights of God himself; to those heights he wanted to lift every human being.

Our procession today is meant, then, to be an image of something deeper, to reflect the fact that, together with Jesus, we are setting out on pilgrimage along the high road that leads to the living God. This is the ascent that matters. This is the journey which Jesus invites us to make. But how can we keep pace with this ascent? Isn’t it beyond our ability? Certainly, it is beyond our own possibilities. From the beginning men and women have been filled – and this is as true today as ever – with a desire to “be like God”, to attain the heights of God by their own powers. All the inventions of the human spirit are ultimately an effort to gain wings so as to rise to the heights of Being and to become independent, completely free, as God is free. Mankind has managed to accomplish so many things: we can fly! We can see, hear and speak to one another from the farthest ends of the earth. And yet the force of gravity which draws us down is powerful. With the increase of our abilities there has been an increase not only of good. Our possibilities for evil have increased and appear like menacing storms above history. Our limitations have also remained: we need but think of the disasters which have caused so much suffering for humanity in recent months.

The Fathers of the Church maintained that human beings stand at the point of intersection between two gravitational fields. First, there is the force of gravity which pulls us down – towards selfishness, falsehood and evil; the gravity which diminishes us and distances us from the heights of God. On the other hand there is the gravitational force of God’s love: the fact that we are loved by God and respond in love attracts us upwards. Man finds himself betwixt this twofold gravitational force; everything depends on our escaping the gravitational field of evil and becoming free to be attracted completely by the gravitational force of God, which makes us authentic, elevates us and grants us true freedom.

Following the Liturgy of the Word, at the beginning of the Eucharistic Prayer where the Lord comes into our midst, the Church invites us to lift up our hearts: “Sursum corda!” In the language of the Bible and the thinking of the Fathers, the heart is the centre of man, where understanding, will and feeling, body and soul, all come together. The centre where spirit becomes body and body becomes spirit, where will, feeling and understanding become one in the knowledge and love of God. This is the “heart” which must be lifted up. But to repeat: of ourselves, we are too weak to lift up our hearts to the heights of God. We cannot do it. The very pride of thinking that we are able to do it on our own drags us down and estranges us from God. God himself must draw us up, and this is what Christ began to do on the cross. He descended to the depths of our human existence in order to draw us up to himself, to the living God. He humbled himself, as today’s second reading says. Only in this way could our pride be vanquished: God’s humility is the extreme form of his love, and this humble love draws us upwards.

Psalm 24, which the Church proposes as the “song of ascent” to accompany our procession in today’s liturgy, indicates some concrete elements which are part of our ascent and without which we cannot be lifted upwards: clean hands, a pure heart, the rejection of falsehood, the quest for God’s face. The great achievements of technology are liberating and contribute to the progress of mankind only if they are joined to these attitudes – if our hands become clean and our hearts pure, if we seek truth, if we seek God and let ourselves be touched and challenged by his love. All these means of “ascent” are effective only if we humbly acknowledge that we need to be lifted up; if we abandon the pride of wanting to become God. We need God: he draws us upwards; letting ourselves be upheld by his hands – by faith, in other words – sets us aright and gives us the inner strength that raises us on high. We need the humility of a faith which seeks the face of God and trusts in the truth of his love.

The question of how man can attain the heights, becoming completely himself and completely like God, has always engaged mankind. It was passionately disputed by the Platonic philosophers of the third and fourth centuries. For them, the central issue was finding the means of purification which could free man from the heavy load weighing him down and thus enable him to ascend to the heights of his true being, to the heights of divinity. Saint Augustine, in his search for the right path, long sought guidance from those philosophies. But in the end he had to acknowledge that their answers were insufficient, their methods would not truly lead him to God. To those philosophers he said: recognize that human power and all these purifications are not enough to bring man in truth to the heights of the divine, to his own heights. And he added that he should have despaired of himself and human existence had he not found the One who accomplishes what we of ourselves cannot accomplish; the One who raises us up to the heights of God in spite of our wretchedness: Jesus Christ who from God came down to us and, in his crucified love, takes us by the hand and lifts us on high.

We are on pilgrimage with the Lord to the heights. We are striving for pure hearts and clean hands, we are seeking truth, we are seeking the face of God. Let us show the Lord that we desire to be righteous, and let us ask him: Draw us upwards! Make us pure! Grant that the words which we sang in the processional psalm may also hold true for us; grant that we may be part of the generation which seeks God, “which seeks your face, O God of Jacob” (cf. Ps 24:6). Amen.

© Copyright 2011 – Libreria Editrice Vaticana

Homilia Benedykta XVI w Niedzielę Palmową,
17 kwietnia 2011

Fr. Astor L. Rodriguez CM is a Vincentian priest since 18 years. A zealous and vigorous, deeply committed to youth ministry and always enjoying contacts with other people. An Excellent, talented preacher. His sermons, as you will notice, are very special experience for everyone who listens to them. Native in Brooklyn, NY with Puerto Rican ancestors. He is parochial vicar in St. John the Baptist parish, Brooklyn, NY He speaks Spanish fluently, unfortunately he does not speak Polish except for few words.

Listen to Fr. Astor’s talk:
DAY ONE – Monday, April 4
DAY TWO – Tuesday, April 5

Thanking our Confrere from other part of Brooklyn we back up pastor of St. Stanislaus Kostka, Fr. Marek Sobczak CM in his words, “Thank you Fr. Astor! We would like to thank you for finding time to be with us and for sharing with us your faith and love for Jesus! Thank you for leading us on our spiritual path toward Easter!”

Watch some pictures from the Eucharist lead by Fr. Astor Rodriguez CM

Podobnie jak w ubiegłym roku postaramy się co tydzień udostępnić Wam nagrania kazań pasyjnych z kościoła św. Stanisława Kostki na Brooklynie, w Nowym Jorku. Będą one umieszczone jako poszczególne wiadomości na stronie głównej oraz zakładce «HOMILIES & SERMONS», gdzie znajdziecie także kazania pasyjne z 2010 roku. Przypominamy także, że treść nabożeństwa z dołączonymi nagraniami znajdziecie w zakładce «GORZKIE ŻALE».

Kazanie Pasyjne – 1 Niedziela Wielkiego Postu 2011

Lent has begun. It is the time of going into the desert, time of reflection and repentance. It is the time to meet Merciful God. According to Polish tradition Gorzkie Zale and Stations of the Cross are the most important devotions during the Lent. Sermons on Passion of Christ are  essential part of the devotion, which usually is celebrated in Polish.   We realize, some of You cannot attend it due to various reasons. Also, we realize for those of You who are not speaking Polish it might be somehow inconvenient, but we invite you to join your neighbors in this time of meditation and prayer. In the first, so called Passion Sermon, this year Fr. Jan Szylar CM preaching in the St. Stanislaus Kostka Church, Brooklyn, NY said, “we will look at the values which lacked makes our Christian life impossible. We will take a look at manifestation of faith, hope, and love, truth, and obedience in time of Christ’s Passion as well as their denial: disbelief, despair, hatred, lying, disobedience.” This Sunday’s theme was “Belief and Unbelief”.

As we did last year, we are delivering sermons preached during Gorzki Zale devotion on our webpage (they are in Polish).  Each Sunday sermons during Gorzkie Zale might be listened to or downloaded from here or from «HOMILIES & SERMONS» subpage of our website. Text of the Gorzkie Zale (Bitter Lamentations) in Polish, including performance by Polish Military Choir is available at «GORZKIE ŻALE». English translation is coming soon.

We deliver sermons preached in St. Stanislaus Kostka Church, Greenpoint, NY. Preacher this year is Fr. Jan Szylar CM. The sermons are in Polish only.  We believe our offer will be helpful in your spiritual pathway through the Lent.

“To do or not to do”

Homily closing the General Assembly
by Superior General, Most Rev. Gregory Gay CM
July 16, 2010

Missal Readings: Is. 52:7-10, Ps 95, 1Cor 1:26-31, 2:1, Mt 25:31-46

«download the homily in PDF»
«watch the closing Mass (with recorded homily)»

“To be or not to be, that is the question?” so wrote Shakespeare. And what is our question? From the perspective of this General Assembly, from the motivation of its theme Creative Fidelity to the Mission, I would dare to say that our question is to do or not to do? Yes, that is our question, my brothers, to do or not to do the mission that the Lord Jesus Christ has entrusted to us as missionaries, priests and brothers, in the Congregation of the Mission.

“He went about doing good” (“Pertransiit benefaciendo.”) Our historians claim that this is the first motto that Saint Vincent de Paul chose for the Congregation of the Mission. In imitation of Jesus Christ, focused on the Word of God, Vincent de Paul was struck by this phrase from the Act of the Apostles. It was Peter who proclaimed how God had anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power and “he went about doing good.”

My brothers, “doing good” is what we have focused on in this General Assembly: how we have done good, how we can be better at doing good, and in what ways we might be able to accomplish that good, being faithful to our heritage and yet ever creative in its expressions. In my report to the General Assembly on the state of the Congregation of the Mission in these past six years, I said simply but clearly that one of the most important developments, not only for the Congregation but also for the Vincentian Family that we had worked on with much intensity, was and is the question of systemic change. Systemic change, as I said, is a contemporary way that we live out that which motivates us to do good, the charity of Jesus Christ crucified.

Fears have been expressed, saying that such a focus on systemic change we might become like another NGO. Such is not the case when we have clear what it is, Who it is that motivates us to do what we do. The need is for us to make that connection, that integral relationship between contemplating the goodness of the Lord, deepening our knowledge of His love for us, and transforming that to loving action for the poor both by word and by deed, through evangelization and service of the poor.

Gentlemen, let me recall for you what Saint Vincent has said to the Congregation about the Common Rules Chapter 1, Art. 1. “If there are any among us who think they are in the Mission to evangelize poor people but not to alleviate their suffering, to take care of their spiritual needs but not their temporal ones, I reply that we have to help them and have them assisted in every way, by us and by others, if we want to hear those pleasing words of our sovereign judge of the living and the dead: ‘Come, beloved of my Father; possess the kingdom that has been prepared for you, because I was hungry and you gave me to eat; I was naked and you clothed me; sick and you assisted me. ‘ To do that is to preach the gospel by words and by works. That is the most perfect way. It is also what our Lord did, and what those should do who represent Him on earth.”

The basis of our renewal, that is of our Creative Fidelity to the Mission is tied into: our love of God, being men of prayer: our love of the Congregation, being men who work at community life, that is participative and unifying: and men who draw close to the poor in order to listen to them, to be moved by their requests of us, being their servants: with a desire to be obedient to them as our lords and masters and therefore to open our hearts to that transforming experience of God’s love that takes place in our interaction with those who are poor. And we do so as a community. We do so motivated by God’s love.

As we are nourished by God’s word let us be nourished by God’s Body and Blood and go forth bearing the Good News. Let us do so as bearers of peace with a humble confidence that it is God who works in us, He who gives us the courage to break with our fears, being made afresh and moving forward, being only concerned to do what Jesus Christ did, “going about doing good” for these the least of our brothers and sisters. So be it for the Congregation of the Mission as it embarks upon a new era, a new period of six years of following Jesus Christ, evangelizer of the Poor.

At the end of the Eucharist Pope and  priests taking part  said Act of Entrustment and Consecration of Priests to the Immaculate Heart of Mary (we will observe this feast tomorrow)  in front of  in the “Salus Populi Romani” icon brought to St. Peter’s Square  from the Basilica of St. Mary Major.    Then, the pope greeted participants  in various languages, including English and  Polish.

Tekst homilii jest również dostępny po polsku

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Dear Brothers in the Priestly Ministry,
Dear Brothers and Sisters,

The Year for Priests which we have celebrated on the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the death of the holy Curè of Ars, the model of priestly ministry in our world, is now coming to an end. We have let the Curé of Ars guide us to a renewed appreciation of the grandeur and beauty of the priestly ministry. The priest is not a mere office-holder, like those which every society needs in order to carry out certain functions. Instead, he does something which no human being can do of his own power: in Christ’s name he speaks the words which absolve us of our sins and in this way he changes, starting with God, our entire life. Over the offerings of bread and wine he speaks Christ’s words of thanksgiving, which are words of transubstantiation – words which make Christ himself present, the Risen One, his Body and Blood – words which thus transform the elements of the world, which open the world to God and unite it to him. The priesthood, then, is not simply “office” but sacrament: God makes use of us poor men in order to be, through us, present to all men and women, and to act on their behalf. This audacity of God who entrusts himself to human beings – who, conscious of our weaknesses, nonetheless considers men capable of acting and being present in his stead – this audacity of God is the true grandeur concealed in the word “priesthood”. That God thinks that we are capable of this; that in this way he calls men to his service and thus from within binds himself to them: this is what we wanted to reflect upon and appreciate anew over the course of the past year. We wanted to reawaken our joy at how close God is to us, and our gratitude for the fact that he entrusts himself to our infirmities; that he guides and sustains us daily. In this way we also wanted to demonstrate once again to young people that this vocation, this fellowship of service for God and with God, does exist – and that God is indeed waiting for us to say “yes”. Together with the whole Church we wanted to make clear once again that we have to ask God for this vocation. We have to beg for workers for God’s harvest, and this petition to God is, at the same time, his own way of knocking on the hearts of young people who consider themselves able to do what God considers them able to do. It was to be expected that this new radiance of the priesthood would not be pleasing to the “enemy”; he would have rather preferred to see it disappear, so that God would ultimately be driven out of the world. And so it happened that, in this very year of joy for the sacrament of the priesthood, the sins of priests came to light – particularly the abuse of the little ones, in which the priesthood, whose task is to manifest God’s concern for our good, turns into its very opposite. We too insistently beg forgiveness from God and from the persons involved, while promising to do everything possible to ensure that such abuse will never occur again; and that in admitting men to priestly ministry and in their formation we will do everything we can to weigh the authenticity of their vocation and make every effort to accompany priests along their journey, so that the Lord will protect them and watch over them in troubled situations and amid life’s dangers. Had the Year for Priests been a glorification of our individual human performance, it would have been ruined by these events. But for us what happened was precisely the opposite: we grew in gratitude for God’s gift, a gift concealed in “earthen vessels” which ever anew, even amid human weakness, makes his love concretely present in this world. So let us look upon all that happened as a summons to purification, as a task which we bring to the future and which makes us acknowledge and love all the more the great gift we have received from God. In this way, his gift becomes a commitment to respond to God’s courage and humility by our own courage and our own humility. The word of God, which we have sung in the Entrance Antiphon of the liturgy, can speak to us, at this hour, of what it means to become and to be priests: “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble of heart” (Mt 11:29).

We are celebrating the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and in the liturgy we peer, as it were, into the heart of Jesus opened in death by the spear of the Roman soldier. Jesus’ heart was indeed opened for us and before us – and thus God’s own heart was opened. The liturgy interprets for us the language of Jesus’ heart, which tells us above all that God is the shepherd of mankind, and so it reveals to us Jesus’ priesthood, which is rooted deep within his heart; so too it shows us the perennial foundation and the effective criterion of all priestly ministry, which must always be anchored in the heart of Jesus and lived out from that starting-point. Today I would like to meditate especially on those texts with which the Church in prayer responds to the word of God presented in the readings. In those chants, word (Wort) and response (Antwort) interpenetrate. On the one hand, the chants are themselves drawn from the word of God, yet on the other, they are already our human response to that word, a response in which the word itself is communicated and enters into our lives. The most important of those texts in today’s liturgy is Psalm 23(22) – “The Lord is my shepherd” – in which Israel at prayer received God’s self-revelation as shepherd, and made this the guide of its own life. “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want”: this first verse expresses joy and gratitude for the fact that God is present to and concerned for us. The reading from the Book of Ezechiel begins with the same theme: “I myself will look after and tend my sheep” (Ez 34:11). God personally looks after me, after us, after all mankind. I am not abandoned, adrift in the universe and in a society which leaves me ever more lost and bewildered. God looks after me. He is not a distant God, for whom my life is worthless. The world’s religions, as far as we can see, have always known that in the end there is only one God. But this God was distant. Evidently he had abandoned the world to other powers and forces, to other divinities. It was with these that one had to deal. The one God was good, yet aloof. He was not dangerous, nor was he very helpful. Consequently one didn’t need to worry about him. He did not lord it over us. Oddly, this kind of thinking re-emerged during the Enlightenment. There was still a recognition that the world presupposes a Creator. Yet this God, after making the world, had evidently withdrawn from it. The world itself had a certain set of laws by which it ran, and God did not, could not, intervene in them. God was only a remote cause. Many perhaps did not even want God to look after them. They did not want God to get in the way. But wherever God’s loving concern is perceived as getting in the way, human beings go awry. It is fine and consoling to know that there is someone who loves me and looks after me. But it is far more important that there is a God who knows me, loves me and is concerned about me. “I know my own and my own know me” (Jn 10:14), the Church says before the Gospel with the Lord’s words. God knows me, he is concerned about me. This thought should make us truly joyful. Let us allow it to penetrate the depths of our being. Then let us also realize what it means: God wants us, as priests, in one tiny moment of history, to share his concern about people. As priests, we want to be persons who share his concern for men and women, who take care of them and provide them with a concrete experience of God’s concern. Whatever the field of activity entrusted to him, the priest, with the Lord, ought to be able to say: “I know my sheep and mine know me”. “To know”, in the idiom of sacred Scripture, never refers to merely exterior knowledge, like the knowledge of someone’s telephone number. “Knowing” means being inwardly close to another person. It means loving him or her. We should strive to “know” men and women as God does and for God’s sake; we should strive to walk with them along the path of God’s friendship.

Let us return to our Psalm. There we read: “He leads me in right paths for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil; for you are with me; your rod and your staff – they comfort me” (23[22]:3ff.). The shepherd points out the right path to those entrusted to him. He goes before them and leads them. Let us put it differently: the Lord shows us the right way to be human. He teaches us the art of being a person. What must I do in order not to fall, not to squander my life in meaninglessness? This is precisely the question which every man and woman must ask and one which remains valid at every moment of one’s life. How much darkness surrounds this question in our own day! We are constantly reminded of the words of Jesus, who felt compassion for the crowds because they were like a flock without a shepherd. Lord, have mercy on us too! Show us the way! From the Gospel we know this much: he is himself the way. Living with Christ, following him – this means finding the right way, so that our lives can be meaningful and so that one day we might say: “Yes, it was good to have lived”. The people of Israel continue to be grateful to God because in the Commandments he pointed out the way of life. The great Psalm 119(118) is a unique expression of joy for this fact: we are not fumbling in the dark. God has shown us the way and how to walk aright. The message of the Commandments was synthesized in the life of Jesus and became a living model. Thus we understand that these rules from God are not chains, but the way which he is pointing out to us. We can be glad for them and rejoice that in Christ they stand before us as a lived reality. He himself has made us glad. By walking with Christ, we experience the joy of Revelation, and as priests we need to communicate to others our own joy at the fact that we have been shown the right way of life.

Then there is the phrase about the “darkest valley” through which the Lord leads us. Our path as individuals will one day lead us into the valley of the shadow of death, where no one can accompany us. Yet he will be there. Christ himself descended into the dark night of death. Even there he will not abandon us. Even there he will lead us. “If I sink to the nether world, you are present there”, says Psalm 139(138). Truly you are there, even in the throes of death, and hence our Responsorial Psalm can say: even there, in the darkest valley, I fear no evil. When speaking of the darkest valley, we can also think of the dark valleys of temptation, discouragement and trial through which everyone has to pass. Even in these dark valleys of life he is there. Lord, in the darkness of temptation, at the hour of dusk when all light seems to have died away, show me that you are there. Help us priests, so that we can remain beside the persons entrusted to us in these dark nights. So that we can show them your own light.

“Your rod and your staff – they comfort me”: the shepherd needs the rod as protection against savage beasts ready to pounce on the flock; against robbers looking for prey. Along with the rod there is the staff which gives support and helps to make difficult crossings. Both of these are likewise part of the Church’s ministry, of the priest’s ministry. The Church too must use the shepherd’s rod, the rod with which he protects the faith against those who falsify it, against currents which lead the flock astray. The use of the rod can actually be a service of love. Today we can see that it has nothing to do with love when conduct unworthy of the priestly life is tolerated. Nor does it have to do with love if heresy is allowed to spread and the faith twisted and chipped away, as if it were something that we ourselves had invented. As if it were no longer God’s gift, the precious pearl which we cannot let be taken from us. Even so, the rod must always become once again the shepherd’s staff – a staff which helps men and women to tread difficult paths and to follow the Lord.

At the end of the Psalm we read of the table which is set, the oil which anoints the head, the cup which overflows, and dwelling in the house of the Lord. In the Psalm this is an expression first and foremost of the prospect of the festal joy of being in God’s presence in the temple, of being his guest, whom he himself serves, of dwelling with him. For us, who pray this Psalm with Christ and his Body which is the Church, this prospect of hope takes on even greater breadth and depth. We see in these words a kind of prophetic foreshadowing of the mystery of the Eucharist, in which God himself makes us his guests and offers himself to us as food – as that bread and fine wine which alone can definitively sate man’s hunger and thirst. How can we not rejoice that one day we will be guests at the very table of God and live in his dwelling-place? How can we not rejoice at the fact that he has commanded us: “Do this in memory of me”? How can we not rejoice that he has enabled us to set God’s table for men and women, to give them his Body and his Blood, to offer them the precious gift of his very presence. Truly we can pray together, with all our heart, the words of the Psalm: “Goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life” (Ps 23[22]:6).

Finally, let us take a brief look at the two communion antiphons which the Church offers us in her liturgy today. First there are the words with which Saint John concludes the account of Jesus’ crucifixion: “One of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once blood and water came out” (Jn 19:34). The heart of Jesus is pierced by the spear. Once opened, it becomes a fountain: the water and the blood which stream forth recall the two fundamental sacraments by which the Church lives: Baptism and the Eucharist. From the Lord’s pierced side, from his open heart, there springs the living fountain which continues to well up over the centuries and which makes the Church. The open heart is the source of a new stream of life; here John was certainly also thinking of the prophecy of Ezechiel who saw flowing forth from the new temple a torrent bestowing fruitfulness and life (Ez 47): Jesus himself is the new temple, and his open heart is the source of a stream of new life which is communicated to us in Baptism and the Eucharist.

The liturgy of the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus also permits another phrase, similar to this, to be used as the communion antiphon. It is taken from the Gospel of John: Whoever is thirsty, let him come to me. And let the one who believes in me drink. As the Scripture has said: “Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water” (cf. Jn 7:37ff.) In faith we drink, so to speak, of the living water of God’s Word. In this way the believer himself becomes a wellspring which gives living water to the parched earth of history. We see this in the saints. We see this in Mary, that great woman of faith and love who has become in every generation a wellspring of faith, love and life. Every Christian and every priest should become, starting from Christ, a wellspring which gives life to others. We ought to be offering life-giving water to a parched and thirst world. Lord, we thank you because for our sake you opened your heart; because in your death and in your resurrection you became the source of life. Give us life, make us live from you as our source, and grant that we too may be sources, wellsprings capable of bestowing the water of life in our time. We thank you for the grace of the priestly ministry. Lord bless us, and bless all those who in our time are thirsty and continue to seek. Amen.

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© Copyright 2010 – Libreria Editrice Vaticana

Polska społeczność Brooklynu na Greenpoincie

Przed godziną 19:00 kościół św. Stanisława wypełnił się po brzegi, podobnie jak to miało miejsce w minioną niedzielę. Zabrakło miejsc siedzących. A stojących w zasadzie też nie było. Jak to zauważyli dziennikarze, np. New York Post, na zewnątrz stał także tłum. W sumie ponad 1200 wiernych, parafian, brooklyńczyków, nowojorczyków, przyjaciół Polski w strojach codziennych, odświętnych i tradycyjnych ludowych.   Przyszli pomodlić się za zmarłych Prezydenta Lecha Kaczyńskiego i jego żonę, oraz za poległych razem z nimi senatorow, posłów urzędników państwowych, oficerów, działaczy społecznych. Wszyscy zgromadzeni modlili się patrząc na udekorowany kwiatami ołtarz, z którego boku wyeksponowano portret Pierwszej Pary Rzeczypospolitej autorstwa Kiki Garber.

Gościem honorowym był J.E. ks. bp Nicholas DiMarzio, ordynariusz diecezji brooklyńskiej, który nie koncelebrował Eucharystii ale modlił się podczas niej. Przyszedł, jak to sam powiedział, “jako biskup, aby solidaryzować się z waszym krajem, rozpamiętując odejście tak wielu, tak wielu wielkich ludzi”. Przybyli przedstawiciele organizacji polonijnych – Centrum Polsko-Słowiańskiego, Polskiej i Słowiańskiego Federacji Unii Kredytowych, Pulaski Association of Business and Professional Men, Kongresu Polonii Amerykńskiej, Domu Narodowego na Greenpoincie, Ligii Morskiej. Przybyły poczty sztandarowe organizacji polonijnych, harcerze. Reprezentowany był także Polski Konsulat Generalny w Nowym Jorku.

Uroczysta Mszę św. pogrzebową koncelebrowali wszyscy pracujący w parafii księża ze Zgromadzenia Księży Misjonarzy z proboszczem, ks. Markiem Sobczakiem CM na czele. Współcelebransami byli kapłani z sąsiedniej polskiej parafii Matki Boskiej Pocieszenia z Williamsburga, ks. Ludwig Kolodziej i towarzyszący mu kapłań z diecezji łomżyńskiej, ks. George Semeniuk CM z Vincentian Center w Oyster Bay, NY (Prowincja Wschodnia CM).

Obrzędy żałobne – rozpoczęcie Mszy św.

Liturgię rozpoczął obrzęd pogrzebu, tzw pierwsza stacja, która normalnie odmawiana jest nad trumną zmarłego. Słowami “Panie wejrzyj ku wspomorzeniu memu” modlitwę rozpoczął ks. Jan Urbaniak CM. Po nim ks. Jarosław Lawrenz CM i ks. Jan Szylar CM na zmianę odśpiewali Psalm 130 – “Z głębokosci wołam do Cibie Panie…”. Modlitwę końcową odmówił, ks. Józef Szpilski CM, wszyscy z parafii św. Stanisława Kostki. W trakcie tej części liturgii nauczyciele z parafialnej szkoły podstawowej św. Stanisława Kostki odczytali dostojnie listę wszystkich poległęch w katastrofie. Kolejne grupy wycytanych nazwisk i pełnionych funkcji oddzwaniał dzwon okrętowy Ligii Morskiej.

Msza św. – Liturgia Słowa

Po obrzędach pogrzebowych, ks. proboszcz od razu przeszedł do Liturgii Słowa, po której wygłosił specjalnie przygotowane na dzisiejszą Mszę św. kazanie poświęcone przede wszystkim poległym z Panem prezydentem na czelem. (Możesz przeczytać treść tej homilii TUTAJ lub posłuchać jej poniżej). Po homilii odczytano Modlitwę Wiernych, tę samą, którą modlono się w czasie niedzielnej Mszy żałobnej za ofiary tragedii (przeczytaj jej tekst TUTAJ).

Msza św. – homilia – ks. Marek Sobczak CM

Msza św. – Modlitwa Wiernych

W trakcie Ofiarowania pani organistka, Małgorzata Staniszewska odśpiewała tradycyjny hymn eucharystyczny “Ave Verum”, po którym nastąpiła sama dlasza część liturgii Eucharystii, do której sprawowania wykorzystano kielich z pateną, dar Lecha i Marii Kaczyńskiech dla kościoła św. Stanisława Kostki z 2007 (zobacz zdjęcia kielicha TUTAJ i TUTAJ)

Msza św. – Liturgia Eucharystii

Ceremonii Komunii świętej ponownie towarzyszył artystyczny występ na który złożyły się pieśni “Serdeczna Matko”, “Ave Maria” Franciszka Schuberta w wykonaniu p. Małgorzaty oraz bardzo refleksyjne wykonanie “Adagio g-moll” Tomaso Albinioniego na organy i flet.

Msza św. – Komunia św.

Za zakończenie Mszy św. głos zabrał ks. bp Nicholas DiMarzio, który rozpoczął od powitania zebranych po polsku słowami “Niech będzie pochwalony Jezus Chrystus”. Po nim głos zabrał ks. proboszcz Marek Sobczak dziękując ks. biskupowi za przybycie i wspólną modlitwę we wspólnocie koscioła św. Stanisława Kostki. Po błogosławienstwie i rozesłaniu wszyscu odśpiewali “Boże coś Polskę”. Następnie wielu wiernych obcenych w kościele wpisało się do specjalnie wyłożonej przed ołtarzem księgi pamiątkowej.

Msza św. – słowa końcowe i błogosławieństwo

Chociaż Msza się skończyła to jak zauważyła później na blogu katolickiej brooklyńskiej stacji telewizyjnej NET NY obecna w kościele dziennikarka stacji Nathalia Ortis: “poruszył mnie widok tak wielu ludzi, którzy jeszce przez godzinę po nabożeństwie nadal trwali w kosciele przechodząc z jednego miejsca w drugie, w ciszy, ze smutkiem na twarzy, niektórzy trzymając polskie flagi. Niektórzy ubrani w tradycyjne polskie stroje ludowe, a niektórzy ubrani w smutek w oczach. Jednak wszyscy zjednoczeni w swoim żalu.”

Zobacz relację filmową przygotowaną przez NET New York dla programu CURRENTS

Msza święta żałobna ku czci tragicznie zmarłych w katastrofie samolotu Prezydenckiego

Możesz także posłuchać tej homilii

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„A sprawiedliwy, choćby umarł przedwcześnie, znajdzie odpoczynek” zapewnia nas autor biblijnej Księgi Mądrości.

10 dzień kwietnia 2010 roku, godzina 8.56. Sobotni poranek. W Warszawie i Gdańsku, w Krakowie i Szczecinie, we Wrocławiu i Białymstoku wstaje dzień. Promienie słońca dziurawią chmury i budzą ziemię z nocnego snu. Domy wypełnia szczebiotanie wyspanych dzieci i rozbudzająca dorosłych muzyka.

10 dzień kwietnia 2010 roku, godzina 8.56. Nad smoleńskimi lasami toczy się huk silników samolotowych radośnie zwiastujący przybywających gości. Lecz co to? Huk niespodziewanie zamienia się w jeszcze potężniejszą złowrogą ciszę. Nie będzie gości? Odlecieli? Oj, nie… Oni pozostali na mokrej katyńskiej ziemi. Uleciały jedynie ich dusze – i to na zawsze, i to daleko. Jakby spełniły się słowa Psalmu 144 – „Człowiek podobny jest do tchnienia wiatru, dni jego jak cień migają…”

Kilka minut później w nie tak odległej Polsce zamilkło szczebiotanie dzieci i muzyka dorosłych. Cisza katyńskiego lasu docierała do Polskich serc poprzez radia i telewizory. Wszędzie było to samo i o tym samym. Zginął Prezydent Rzeczypospolitej Polski Lech Kaczyński wraz z żoną i 94 osobami znajdującymi się w prezydenckim samolocie Tu-154M, lot nr 101.

W niedowierzaniu zamarła cała Polska, później reszta nas, Polaków, rozproszonych na całym świecie. Rozdzwoniły się dzwony kościołów – jękliwie wybijając mosiężnymi sercami – tragedia narodowa, tragedia narodowa… A polskie flagi, ze smutku i z żalu, okryły się kirem. Ludzkie gardła ścisnęła niemoc i tylko wargi szeptały – Wieczne odpoczywanie, racz im dać Panie….

Stanęliśmy bezradni w obliczu śmierci osób, które przez ekran telewizyjny stawały się codziennie coraz bliższymi członkami naszych rodzin. Aż tu nagle, ich życie rozwiało się w naszych oczach, jak poranna mgła, która jest a za chwilę jej nie ma. Ale zanim zniknęła to sprawiła, że katyńska ziemia, uświęcona krwią polskich oficerów, ponownie nasyciła się krwią polskiej elity. Uświęcona czy przeklęta???

Nad katyńskim lasem, prezydencki samolot zataczał wielkie koło podchodząc do lądowania. Wraz z samolotem – to los historii zatoczył wielkie koło po to, aby świat dowiedział się o męczennikach systemu komunistycznego i stalinizmu. To los historii (miejmy nadzieję) sprawił – Jego Majestat, Pan Prezydent Kaczyński, który tak bardzo dbał o polską pamięć narodową, jak żaden inny Prezydent Polski, zginął w miejscu najświętszym tej pamięci. Zginął tam, gdzie miał powiedzieć następujące słowa: „niewypowiedziane cierpienia znaczyły drogę polskiej Golgoty Wschodu. Najbardziej tragiczną stacją tej drogi był Katyń. Polskich oficerów, duchownych, urzędników, policjantów, funkcjonariuszy straży granicznej i służby więziennej zgładzono bez procesów i wyroków. Byli ofiarami niewypowiedzianej wojny. Zostali zamordowani z pogwałceniem praw i konwencji cywilizowanego świata. Zdeptano ich godność jako żołnierzy, Polaków i ludzi. Doły śmierci na zawsze miały ukryć ciała pomordowanych i prawdę o zbrodni. Świat miał się nigdy nie dowiedzieć. Rodzinom ofiar odebrano prawo do publicznej żałoby, do opłakania i godnego upamiętnienia najbliższych. Ziemia przykryła ślady zbrodni, a kłamstwo miało wymazać ją z ludzkiej pamięci.”

Czy ofiara życia Pana Prezydenta i 95 innych ludzi, którzy chcieli i mieli prawo być w miejscu kaźni swoich poprzedników sprawi, że może w końcu świat dowie się prawdy? Bo wcześniej, jak Prezydent Kaczyński miał powiedzieć: „Ukrywanie prawdy o Katyniu – efekt decyzji tych, którzy do zbrodni doprowadzili – stało się jednym z fundamentów polityki komunistów w powojennej Polsce: założycielskim kłamstwem PRL. Był to czas, kiedy za pamięć i prawdę o Katyniu płaciło się wysoką cenę. Jednak bliscy pomordowanych i inni, odważni ludzie trwali wiernie przy tej pamięci, bronili jej i przekazywali kolejnym pokoleniom Polaków. Przenieśli ją przez czas komunistycznych rządów i powierzyli rodakom wolnej, niepodległej Polsce. Dlatego im wszystkim, a zwłaszcza Rodzinom Katyńskim, jesteśmy winni szacunek i wdzięczność. W imieniu Rzeczypospolitej składam najgłębsze podziękowanie za to, że broniąc pamięci o swoich bliskich, ocaliliście Państwo jakże ważny wymiar naszej polskiej świadomości i tożsamości.”

I znów przyszło nam zapłacić wysoką cenę za prawdę katyńską, która ponownie pokrywa się całunem w kolorach niewinności i męczeństwa – białym i czerwonym – jak polska flaga, jak promienie z serca Jezusa na obrazie Miłosierdzia Bożego.

Tomasz Sakowicz – redaktor Gazety Polskiej – powiedział mniej więcej takie słowa: „Naród przeżywa jedna z najgłębszych tragedii. Nie chodzi tylko o ilość zabitych, a nawet o to, że zginęli ludzie najważniejsi w państwie. Chodzi o to, że odebrano nam to, co powodowało, że Polska się zmieniała w ostatnich latach, uderzono samo serce zmian Polskich. Zrobił to ślepy los, wypadek, może coś jeszcze. Mamy połączenie katastrofy Gibraltarskiej z mordem w Katyniu, jakby w jednym miejscu, w jednym wypadku, w jednym zdarzeniu. Tym samym została wyzwolona wielka energia i wierzymy, że ta śmierć nie pójdzie na marne…”

Oby zyskała na tym Ojczyzna. Oby zrozumieli to ludzie, którzy mają w ręku potężną broń czyli środki masowego przekazu. To oni mają moc łączyć i dzielić, manipulować i wpływać na ludzkie myślenie. Oby nie dzieliły społeczeństwa jak to było do tej pory, poprzez wyśmiewanie i szydzenie z człowieka, który był Prezydentem Polski. Wyśmiewano go za jego katolicką wiarę i jej praktykowanie. Wyszydzano go za to, że żył to wiarą, że ją wprowadzał do życia ustawodawczego, do życia narodu – nota bene – tego narodu, który od wieków był wierny Bogu i zawsze stał pod sztandarem, na którym był wyhaftowany napis – Bóg, Honor i Ojczyzna. Drwiono z niego, bo przywrócił dumę z faktu bycia Polakiem, spadkobiercą wspaniałych polskich pokoleń.

Mówiono o nim właśnie tak, bo zapomniano o tym pięknym aforyźmie: Do szczytnego celu prowadzi szczytna droga. Prezydent Kaczyński szedł do szczytnego celu jakim było dobro Polski szczytną drogą życia. Szedł drogą, którą powinien kroczyć każdy Polski obywatel.

Święty Wincenty a Paulo – człowiek historia – ten, który w 17 wieku stworzył dzieła miłosierdzia i jest fundamentem i kamieniem węgielnym organizacji charytatywnych w świecie – powiedział znamienne słowa: „Musisz kochać ludzi, którym służysz”. Nie wiem, czy śp. Pan Prezydent czytał te słowa Wincentego a Paulo, i czy je choćby słyszał –wiem jednak, że on je praktykował w życiu. On kochał ludzi, on kochał Polskę. On służył człowiekowi troszcząc się o jego dobro i służył Polsce dla jej dobra. Prezydent Kaczyński był dobrym i ciepłym człowiekiem i widział w innych po prostu ludzi, a nie pionki w grach politycznych, miał olbrzymi szacunek tak dla Boga jak i dla człowieka, miał szacunek i wiarę we własny naród. Żył w przekonaniu, że w obecnym wieku – tak jak wcześniej – trzeba dbać o interes własnego państwa, bo jak my, Polacy, o niego nie zadbamy – to nikt tego za nas nie uczyni.

Taki powinien być każdy Polak, bo Polak, choć nie wierzył w Boga, był zawsze dżentelmenem i szanował wyznanie i poglądy drugiego człowieka, czego dowodem jest tak wspaniałe zadomowienie się narodu żydowskiego na ziemiach polskich, ewangelików czy luteranów przez wieki. Czego dowodem jest ratowanie Żydów przez Polaków, choć tylko na terenie Polski za taką pomoc groziła kara śmierci ze strony hitlerowców.

Kim są zatem Ci, którzy drwią z własnego prezydenta i którzy go nie szanują? Albo, kim są Ci, którzy już teraz sieją podział protestując przeciw decyzji o miejscu pochówku? Polakami?

Kilka miesięcy temu będąc w Ojczyźnie rozmawiałem z kuzynki synem, dwudziestolatkiem, o potrzebie dochowania wierności polskim i katolickim wartością. Skwitował jednym zdaniem, wujek – ja jestem Polakiem, ale przed wszystkim europejczykiem, a tam to już niemodne. Polska pyta – Kto tych młodych ludzi tak wychowuje?

Dlatego jakże ważne wydają się być słowa, które napisał Tomasz Czarnecki w Gazecie Polskiej: „Chciałbym, żeby od Prezydenta Rzeczypospolitej Lecha Kaczyńskiego Jego następcy nauczyli się kilku rzeczy. „Kilku myśli – co nie nowe” – jakby to powiedział Norwid. Przede wszystkim patriotyzmu, miłości Ojczyzny – nie na pokaz, nie na wybory, lecz prawdziwej, wynikającej z rodzinnej tradycji, książek, własnych przemyśleń. Także wielkiego szacunku dla narodowej historii, dla pokoleń walczących o to, „żeby Polska była Polską”, dla Żołnierzy Wyklętych, dla wszystkich tych, którzy po 1944 r. chcieli Polski wolnej, silnej, i płacili za to dużą cenę. Niech się uczą również zrozumienia dla polityki historycznej”.

Tragedia z 10 kwietnia 2010 r. obliguje nas do tego, by zawołać: Obudź się, Polsko, otrząśnij się z koszmarnego snu i spojrzyj na swoje korzenie, które przecież są chrześcijańskie, i wskrześ w sobie siłę, by z polskiej ziemi nie pozwolić wyrwać krzyża i Ewangelii, by zatrzymać polską tradycję i patriotyzm.
W osobach, które odeszły, na czele z Prezydentem RP, mieliśmy to oparcie i tę nadzieję, że będą stali na straży wartości chrześcijańskich i polskich. (Tygodnik Niedziela)

Testament śp. Prezydenta Najjaśniejszej Rzeczypospolitej – testament Polski wolnej, solidarnej, silnej, Polski-dobrej Matki dla wszystkich swoich dzieci, tych bogatszych i tych biedniejszych, tych z wielkich metropolii i tych z małych wsi – dostał się nam w spadku po Nim. Czyńmy więc swoją powinność, róbmy swoje, by – kiedy się z nim spotkamy tam, gdzie jest teraz – nie wytknął nam grzechu zaniechania.

Nad katyńskim lasem leciał prezydencki samolot. Mówią, że w pewnym momencie pochylił się mocno na jedną stronę i przez to, zawadził skrzydłem o drzewa i runął w dół ku swojej zgubie. Trudno tego nie odnieść do rzeczywistości. Oto w jednej chwili naród poniósł straty wprost niemożliwe do oszacowania. Straciliśmy prezydenta, straciliśmy prezesa IPN, rzecznika Praw Obywatelskich, prawie całe kierownictwo PIS, wybitnych polityków prawicy chrześcijańskiej, straciliśmy legendarną działaczkę założycielkę NSZZ Solidarność. Polska niebezpiecznie przechyliła się na jedno skrzydło. Oby nie był to przechył katastrofalny.

Na ulice polskich miast wyszły tłumy zapłakanych ludzi, którym zabrakło słów, których serca pękają z bólu. Lecz najgorszy jest ten nękający lęk, o to, co będzie dalej z naszym krajem, co będzie z nami. Odszedł Prezydent Kaczyński. Odeszło tylu mądrych Polaków. Nie wypowiedzą już prawdy, nie ostrzegą, nie uświadomią błędu, nie poprowadzą właściwą drogą!

Było skupienie, wyciszenie i zapalone świece przy Pałacu Prezydenckim, zapełniły się także kościoły w całej Polsce i na świecie. Oby to był dobry początek jutra naszego kraju i naszej Ojczyzny. Modlimy się o to słowami kardynał Józefa Glempa z homilii w Warszawie – Panie Boże, druga odsłona katyńskiego dramatu rozegrała się nie po naszej myśli, pozwól nam przez wiarę odczytać sens Twojej myśli. Chryste, ześlij swego ducha na Polaków.

A duszom wiernych zmarłych daj wieczny pokój. Amen

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Przeczytaj więcej na temat samej Mszy Żałobnej lub jej posłuchaj w całości TUTAJ

“Chrystus Zmartwychwstał… Prawdziwie Zmartwychwstał… Zmartwychwstanie Jezusa Chrytusa stanowi podstawę naszej, chrześcijańskiej wiary. Zmartwychwstanie Pańskie jest największym z cudów, albowiem dowodzi, że Jezus jest Bogiem. Święty Paweł w Liście do Koryntian napisał znamienne słowa:  «Jeśli Jezus nie zmartwychwstał, daremne jest nasze nauczanie, próżna jest także wasza wiara. A jeżeli Chrytus nie zmartwychwstał, aż dotąd pozostajecie w swoich grzechach. Tymczasem jednak Chrystus zmartwychwstał, jako pierwszy spośród tych co pomarli»” (por. 1Kor 15,14-20)  

Te słowa wierni uczestniczący we Mszy św. w Niedzielę Zmartwychwstania Pańskiego usłyszeli od ks. Marka Sobczaka CM,  proboszcza parafii św. Stanisława Kostki na Greepoincie w Brooklynie, NY.  Poniżej dajemy możliwość posłuchania tej wielkanocnej homilii tym, którzy nie uczetniczyli w Eucharystki u św. Stanisława Kostki. Aby odtworzyć nagranie, wystarczy kliknąć na poniższy tytuł:

Homilia na Niedzielę Zmartwychwstania Pańskiego

“Christ is Risen… Risen indeed… Resurrection of Jesus Christ constitutes the foundation of our Christian faith. Lord’s Resurrection is the greatest miracle, because it gives an evidence, hat Jesus is God. In the Letter to Corinthians Saint Paul wrote significant words: «And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep»” (cf. 1 Cor 15:14-20)

These words could be heard in the homily preached by Fr. Marek Sobczak CM, Pastor of St. Stanislaus Kostka Parish, Greenpoint, Brooklyn, NY on Easter Sunday. You can listen to this homily in Polish clicking on the title above.