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From the Pastor: Muskrat, Beaver, and Puffin for Lent
Some of you may read the following article and swear that you have read it before. You may be mostly correct. I pulled this out of storage, dusted it off, adjusted the dates and a few other little things and am presenting it to you once again. Of course, this comes from quite a few years back, and most of you would probably think it was all brand new if I wasn’t writing this opening paragraph, so I could have just passed it off as original, but I don’t want to be accused of plagiarizing my own writings! Several years ago as Lent was about to begin (get ready, this coming Wednesday, February 26, is Ash Wednesday!) I wrote about a strange custom found in Michigan wherein Catholics could eat muskrat without violating Church laws on abstinence. [Hopefully, you all know that Catholics are, by Church law (rather than Divine Law, which cannot be “tweaked” in the same way) required to abstain from meat on Ash Wednesday, Good Friday and all Fridays in Lent. All other Fridays of the Year are considered penitential but we in the United States are allowed to choose a penance other than the traditional abstinence from meat outside of those days already mentioned. We don’t get off the hook, we simply get to choose our own penance. Really. Vatican II did not get rid of Friday penance!] This year another story has been making the rounds that beavers in Quebec long ago also received the honorary title of “fish” (like tomatoes being honorary vegetables though they are really fruit) so that they, too, can be eaten on Fridays in Lent. Our Michiganders have yet to start up a Lenten muskrat Friday “fish” fry, much to the disappointment of every other Epiphany parishioner, I am sure, but perhaps one of our Canadian snowbirds would be willing to bring down a truckload of beaver for the same purpose. Stories vary about whether the whole beaver or only the tail was allowed to be classified as “fish” for abstinence purposes, so I suppose we would need an official clarification before we start cooking. I don’t know much about the laws regarding trapping and butchering either critter but if they are both in season right now it is possible that we could even get both of them brought down here to put on our menu. Imagine the envy of the other parishes when they discover that we offer a choice of either beaver or muskrat! The hardest part might be determining the side dishes. Both rodents are northern animals so it would seem strange to fix them with cheese grits and collard greens but what else would be a suitable substitute? For some strange reason, most of the vegetable dishes we find in local restaurants all seem foreign to our friends from the north. Just mention “stewed okra” and watch their noses scrunch up. Even something as normal as “fried green tomatoes” produces a look of bewilderment among the part-timers around here. Of course, it seems all the more strange that they don’t eat those great foods when they are the ones bringing the rodents to the table! Not to be outdone by the crazy North Americans, though, people from other parts of the world have some unusual “fish” equivalents as well. Look at the Venezuelans. They are allowed to eat the largest rodent in the world, the capybara, for Lent. One website quotes a restaurant owner (who, presumably, has capybara on the menu though that is never made clear) as saying, “I know it’s a rat, but it tastes really good.” I wonder if people from Venezuela with such discerning palates would have the audacity to turn their noses up at grits they way our own Yankees do? Or how about some French cooking for Lent? France brings us stories about being allowed to eat puffins on Lenten Fridays. You know those charming little birds at SeaWorld which are found in the cold weather displays along with the penguins? Those are puffins. Like the rodents above, these birds are semi-aquatic and so probably taste like fish or duck rather than like chicken. Unlike articles about those “brave” souls willing to eat rodents, where reporters seem to revel in the “gross” factor of eating rat-like animals, the articles about those who eat puffins (yes, you can find them easily enough) show outrage that anyone would eat a cute little birdie. So it is probably best that, as far as I know, anyway, we don’t have any parishioners coming from northern France and we will keep the puffins off the Friday menu. Of course, now that I mentioned the controversial eating of puffins, I cannot go without mentioning that in some places whales, seals and even (gulp) porpoises seem to have been allowed on some Friday Lenten dinner menus as well. Because our social hall only seats about 120 people around the tables and we would have to exclude way too many of you who would be clamoring to chow down on such delectable dishes, this year we won’t be able to host any of these Lenten dinners. But should we happen to have among our parishioners some avid muskrat or beaver trappers, puffin pursuants, capybara chasers, or seal stalkers willing to bring in a nice supply for next year, we might, with proper planning, be able to pull it off. Our Council of Catholic Women could bring back their tent for outdoor seating, the Knights of Columbus could do the cooking, the American Heritage Girls could serve, and, well, what a yummy penance! With prayers for your holiness, Rev. Fr. Edwin Palka
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From the Pastor: Safe Haven Sunday
Last year about this time every parish in the diocese was asked to promote what was termed “Safe Haven Sunday.” Each priest and deacon was asked to use the topic of the evils of pornography as the basis of his homily that Sunday. Why? We were all encouraged to preach about it on the same weekend because it is a very difficult topic to deal with from the pulpit but it needs to be addressed as it is a huge and growing immoral problem in our society and in our Church. If all clergy addressed it on the same day, nobody could run to a different parish looking for a nicey-nicey sermon and demonize the priest/deacon who tackled the tough issue, because they would find the same tough issue no matter where they turned! Only about half of the parishes wound up actually doing it, though. I won’t speculate here why the other half did not. But I can tell you from discussions about the results at our deanery meetings and at other gatherings of priests that it was hard to preach but reaped great rewards. It also revealed a great level of ignorance about the seriousness of this sin among the active Catholics. So today I am writing here to let you know that next weekend is our second Safe Haven Sunday. All parishes have once again been encouraged to preach about the evil of pornography. Prepare yourself ahead of time and prepare your children as needed. Today, besides the heads-up, I also want to enlighten you on some certain facts in a cut and dry manner. Here goes. Viewing pornography is, in and of itself, a mortal sin, and it very often leads to further mortal sins. Just by viewing such indecent material the person violates the Commandments numbered 6 and 9. Yes, you commit the sin of adultery by viewing pornography (“But I say to you, that whosoever shall look on a woman to lust after her, hath already committed adultery with her in his heart.” Mt. 5:28) and the sin of coveting thy neighbor’s wife (even if she is not, strictly speaking, somebody’s wife, for we are not to covet anyone’s husband, future wife, fiance, child, grandfather, etc., either). It often leads to other mortal sins such as self-abuse, rape, voyeurism, sodomy (with same- or opposite-sex partners), etc., and almost always with an increase in the vileness of the actions over time. (Don’t worry, these things will not be mentioned directly in the homily, for children don’t read the bulletins but they do hear the homilies.) This direct breaking of two commandments often is accompanied by breaking other commandments at the same time. For instance, can you really say you are honoring your father and mother (Commandment #4) if you are watching porn? Would they really be pleased to see you doing it, no matter your age? If they are, that explains how you got into this sin in the first place, yet it does not negate that it is a sin. If given the choice between pleasing God through chastity and custody of the eyes or pleasing yourself through pornography, which you know to be a mortal sin, which do you choose? If you put your own false “needs” above Him, have you not broken the first Commandment? Much of the visual “entertainment” of this sort purposely blasphemes God and His Church, encourages sick fantasies about clergy and religious, family members, and many other people, creatures, places and things which absolutely should never be seen in a sexual manner. Commandments numbers 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 all quite often get broken by engaging in this seemingly private activity. Commandment number 3 is also often destroyed if this activity is done on Sundays or Holy Days or if, after engaging in this activity, the person receives Holy Communion in a state of serious (mortal) sin just because he or she is embarrassed to not receive, or convinces himself that he needs God in the Blessed Sacrament in order to get the strength to overcome the sin. (In case you don’t know, that is perhaps even greater than the other sins listed since it is almost always a premeditated sin. You can’t just receive Communion by accident and get sucked into it as you can with porn. You know ahead of entering the church for Mass that Holy Communion will be offered to those who can properly receive and you know ahead of time that you are not in a state of grace and should not go forward at that time. It pains me to have to warn you, but experience says that I must, that you may encounter a priest who says that it is not a big deal, not a mortal sin, or that, even if it is a mortal sin, you should feel free to receive Holy Communion anyway, as long as you are sorry and plan to go to confession sometime soon. Wrong. You must go to confession first. Period. Finally, I want to let you know that the specific topic for Safe Haven Sunday this year is porn use among the young. Your children, your grandchildren, even the angelic ones, are, by all statistics, almost all viewing porn before they even know what it is or why people are doing the actions they are seeing. They are being hurt badly, becoming addicted to sexual sins, and being scarred for life or for eternity. What are you doing to stop them and to heal them if they have already been hurt? With prayers for your holiness, Rev. Fr. Edwin Palka From the Pastor: A Sign In The Heavens For All To See?
Several weeks ago my news feed fairly exploded with news that Betelgeuse (the star, not the movie) might go supernova. Here is a snippet from Space.com. One of the brightest stars in the sky has been dimming. But, while it might be signaling that it's ready to explode, it's probably just fading because of strange, stellar physics. Betelgeuse, a reddish star that's one of the brightest in the night sky, has been noticeably "fainting," or getting dimmer. The approximately 8.5 million-year-old star, which is part of the Orion constellation, has been one of the most recognizable stars in the sky because of its brightness and coloration. But this recent, dramatic fading has prompted scientists to suggest that the star might be entering a pre-supernova phase, dimming before it collapses and "dies" in a fiery supernova explosion. If the star does become a supernova, Betelgeuse would likely be as bright as, or even brighter than the moon for weeks or even more. Every news agency gave differing bits of information about what happens with a supernova, what danger (or lack of it) we would be in, and other such things. Obviously, not everything can be explained in any one article. But this quoted part about how bright it would be and how long it may be that bright caught my attention. As I started looking for more information about that aspect of it I discovered that because it lies on the celestial equator, it is already visible just about everywhere. After a supernova Betelgeuse explosion, literally everyone on Earth might witness this bright blast. The Atlantic expanded on this with the following. The view would be mind-boggling, day or night. The Orion constellation can be seen from nearly everywhere on Earth, which means nearly everyone could see the exploding star. It would easily cut through the artificial-light pollution that prevents 80 percent of the world—and a staggering 99 percent of the United States and Europe—from experiencing a clear view of the night sky. “At the predicted brightness of a Betelgeuse supernova, you could be standing in the center of the biggest city in the world, and you would certainly see it,” says John Barentine, an astronomer and the director of public policy at the International Dark-Sky Association, a nonprofit that works to mitigate light pollution. “You couldn’t miss it.” Even more spectacular, the display would stick around. The gleaming orb would remain visible for more than a year, perhaps even longer. How strange it would be to witness day in and day out, to understand, for the most part, that the blaze is simply a natural wonder of the universe, but still feel, on a deeper, more primitive level, that the sky looks very wrong. So as I am reading these sensational articles (they all admit somewhere long past the headline, that they may be off by 100,000 years or more in “predicting” that Betelgeuse will explode any day now), going through my mind was that if God wanted us to wake up and come to attention, this might be just the ticket. And, sure enough, I am not the only one thinking along those lines. Explanations are coming in about just how important the Orion cluster of stars might be to Catholic typology. Even Catholic sources vary a bit in detail, though they all agree that Our Lord put the stars in position and gave ancient men cloudy wisdom to spin tales about the constellations which in the future (our times) would be fulfilled, such as: Orion was regarded as the Loyal Shepherd of Heaven and he is battling Taurus, the bull, a symbol of evil, as he stomps on the rabbit Lepus (or maybe a serpent). All the while the constellation Eridanus River, a river of judgment leading to the underworld, flows nearby, into which is wading a monster named Cetus. There are so many details that I cannot possibly remember them, let alone try to explain them. Most of it is foreign to me, since I have very limited experience or education in astronomy of any sort, let alone in knowing the ancient myths concocted about them. But I find it quite intriguing to wonder if God would show such a spectacular sight as a supernova to all of mankind during such a dark period of humanity (dark in the spiritual and societal sense, though in the technological sense we have so much light as to obscure most of the stars which begat these myths about the constellations in the first place). What would be our general response? The Star of Bethlehem brought mostly yawns, yet it was a bright message from God. Will men of today see any of God’s handiwork in a new astronomical spectacle as has never before been witnessed by men? (Lk 21:25 And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, by reason of the confusion of the roaring of the sea and of the waves) Or simply pat themselves on the back for knowing the “science” behind what could otherwise be seen as religious superstitious nonsense? Will this be the time each man sees the state of his own soul? Three days of introspection, fear, love or hate? Perhaps we will see. Or perhaps there is just a dust cloud passing between us and Betelgeuse which is temporarily blocking its light and its imminent explosion of death is just the latest media frenzy about nothing. With prayers for your holiness, Rev. Fr. Edwin Palka From the Pastor: Farewell, Father Vincent!
This coming Sunday, February 2, is Fr. Vincent Capuano’s last day with us. He is a Jesuit priest of the Argentina Province, and has been “on loan” to Tampa’s Jesuit High School for a few years but has now been called back home. Due to his other priestly duties on Sundays, he usually celebrates only the 7:30 am Mass, although occasionally is he able to assist at the 10:30. But on this, his final day, he will be able to be at both, so all of you who desire to wish him well will be able to do so. He is an excellent preacher, teacher, and priest and will be greatly missed around here. Please pray for his continued holiness as he begins his new assignment. If you were planning on giving him a gift of any sort, please remember that he is not driving a U Haul to his next assignment but is rather flying. All that he owns has to fit in his checked baggage or carry on luggage. So, as beautiful as that statue of St. Thomas Aquinas is, which you wanted to give him after being in his class on that famous Doctor of the Church, he will have to leave it behind, regardless of whether it is life-sized or fits on a tabletop. Prayers and Masses, on the other hand, don’t take up much room in a suitcase! By happy, holy coincidence, set in motion by Our Lord through Holy Mother Church many centuries ago, his last day will be an extraordinary day for us. It is the Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, commonly called “Candlemas” due to the blessing of candles that occurs, and is, in some local traditions (but not “officially,” even in the older liturgical calendars, though much ink has been and still is being spilled debating this!), the ending to the Christmas season. This is the first time since I have been at Epiphany that this feast day falls on a Sunday. Last year it was on a Saturday, which allowed more of you to attend than when it fell in the middle of the week. This year all of you should be able to make it, plus you can bring others with you who won’t get the blessing of candles at their home parish, so I expect a large crowd at both Masses. There will be a small procession at the 10:30 Mass (sorry, 7:30-ers, but only the main Mass gets the most solemn rites according to the old liturgical books) but there will be a blessing of candles at both Masses. So bring in your candles! Bring in beeswax candles for the ominous Three Days of Darkness; scented candles which make the house smell like cookies or Christmas trees; dripless tapers for your romantic dinners; fancy candles for special occasions; birthday candles for all of the cakes you will bake this year; or any other kind of candle you use at home or work. We will bless them all. Due to the size of the congregations (what a great problem to have: too many people!), we won’t even try to have a table to hold all of your candles, since last year we packed a huge table full plus had candles stacked all around and under it and it wasn’t a Sunday celebration. So just keep them with you in the pew and we will bless them where they are. (If you bring in huge bags or boxes, too many to keep in the pew, we will find a place to put them which is out of the way. Don’t worry!) Although in past years you have carried your own candles in procession, this year at the 10:30 Mass we will bless enough tapers for everyone to have one for the procession and to use at Mass so that those who don’t bring in candles won’t be left in the dark. Or as dark as it gets in a daytime candlelight celebration, anyway. Remember that one of the most practical reasons for blessing candles on this day is so that we have blessed candles for the following days’ feast, that of St. Blaise (or Blase), on which we use two crossed candles to bless throats. And, before you ask, no, we will not do the blessing of throats on Sunday just because everyone is there. We follow the liturgical calendar and bless throats on the day they are to be blessed, February 3. Oh, and realize that the 10:30 Mass will be a bit longer than usual due to the extra blessing and procession. On the subject of things being a bit longer, there are five prayers of blessing given this day, rather than the single one used to bless candles during the rest of the year. The blessing of candles takes place before Mass and if you show up late and miss the blessing, do not -- I repeat, do not! -- expect to get your candles blessed after Mass is over! Now that you are aware of what is going on next weekend, it is time to get prepared! Those of you reading this during the homily can open your phone’s Amazon app and start ordering candles... Wait, no, that stuff only happens at Novus Ordo parishes, right? Right? Put that phone away now! I was just joking! I see what you schola members are doing back there! Stop that immediately! Don’t make me turn around and come back there... With prayers for your holiness, Rev. Fr. Edwin Palka From the Pastor: My Office Looks Like The Church
During the past 30 or so days my office has resembled a dumping grounds. I very rarely have a clean, tidy desk to begin with since once I put something in a file cabinet I forget about getting back to it. So instead of training myself to routinely open the cabinet and check on things like wedding files, upcoming events, letters that need responses, etc., I simply pile those things on the desk where I have to see them on a regular basis. Eventually, I have to move them around a bit, restack and reorganize the piles as priorities change or emergency things come in, but sooner or later everything on the desk gets taken care of. But for some reason this Advent the piles just kept getting deeper and deeper. Christmas gifts, both those I received and those I purchased for giving crowded out my floor space, too. My mailbox was also overflowing so much that I had to keep emptying it and adding all of the unopened letters, periodicals, newspapers, cards, and whatnot to the ever-growing piles of stuff on my desk. On top of that (not literally, thanks be to God) my voicemails, emails, text, Facebook, WhatsApp, Viber, and Flocknote messages just kept outpacing my ability to read, let alone respond, file, or delete. In a world where everyone expects immediate responses to each and every form of communication, dozens, perhaps hundreds, of people must have thought that I was dead. I am finally getting things organized. I have opened up most of the Christmas cards and sent out Thank You notes to those who gave gifts (I am especially thankful for the gifts of Masses and Spiritual Bouquets) if I could find an address and read the signature (one or both of those were sometimes missing, so I will include a general “Thank You!” here for those I have missed and will miss as I open still more cards). I have been limiting myself (or trying to, anyway) to a maximum of 2 hours a day reading and responding to emails. I get several hundred every day, most of which are junk but still need to be clicked and deleted. Many times it is impossible to tell if the email is something I actually need to read or if it is simply spam or an advertisement, so I have to open it before trashing it. Some are pretty clear. If it is from a store, it is an ad. But some are not so clear. For instance, I might receive emails from seven different offices at the Diocesan Pastoral Center. I cannot just delete them, even if I think I know that they will not be useful to me, because what I assume to be just a weekly bulletin about something that I have no need of knowing might actually be a notice of an upcoming change of policy or an “invitation” to a mandatory meeting. So I have to open each one. Then, of course, I am on the mailing list of seemingly every Catholic organization that exists and it is very often impossible to determine without opening the email if they are sending me donation materials or if a real person is actually trying to reach me from that organization. It takes a lot of time to open, scan briefly, and trash. As for the FB, I don’t even have it on my phone anymore and anyone who tries to contact me through its Messenger better be prepared to wait a couple of weeks even in a normal time! Sorry, that’s just how it is. My biggest problem with both emails and texts that I want to get back to but simply cannot answer as I first see them (this happens especially if I get it from my phone, which requires a single finger typed response rather than the rapid-fire thumb movements of you younger folks) is not knowing how to keep them up at the top of the stack as I can do with the stuff on my desk. Texts are especially bad, as it doesn’t have a “search” feature like email does to help find one that I know is there somewhere but may be a hundred and two spaces down the list by the time I want to answer. (Or is there a search feature of which I am unaware? Let me know if there is one!) So why am I writing this? Because, as the title states, this is also how the Church seems to be right now. Just this week the book about priestly celibacy written by Cardinal Sarah and Pope Benedict was in the news because it was coming out. Then it was in the news with the accusation that Pope Benedict never saw nor OK’d it. Then it was in the news because Cardinal Sarah provided proof that Benedict did indeed write, see, and OK it. Then it was in the news because Cardinal Vigano... well, I see this one little thing in the Church combined with the clutter of other matters -- such as the rewarding of homosexual-activity-promoting priests and bishops, the push toward a One World Religion, the denial of the ontological change in the sacrament of Holy Orders and so, so many other confounding issues promoted by Church hierarchy -- looking almost exactly like my office. But like my office, I hold out hope that it will all be organized and cleared out one day (or year, or decade, or century!). In the meantime, the more chaotic it gets out there, the more this parish grows! With prayers for your holiness, Rev. Fr. Edwin Palka From the Pastor: I Give Thanks To God Always For You
The year has just begun and already I have much for which to be thankful. You, the parishioners of Epiphany of Our Lord, are at the center of it all. First of all, I am thankful for the new handicap ramp which was just completed on the parking lot side of the church next to the handicap parking spaces. The new ramp brings many positive comments from people who never complained about a lack of a ramp before but who now acknowledge that getting up the steps was quite a challenge for them. As you know, the ramp was done with the coordination and donation of anonymous parishioners who themselves did not need a ramp. This project was sacrificial, not self-serving! Thank you! The next thing for which I am very thankful is the people who worked tirelessly to make the church and hall clean and welcoming for the Christ Child (and us) during Advent and Christmas. People scrubbed and chiseled and polished and swept and decorated for untold hours. We even had people who are not yet Catholic spend hours helping us to make the church attractive. The people of St. Joseph Vietnamese Mission worked long hours outside to bring the “bling” of thousands of lights and figures surrounding the large cave of their Nativity set. They always bring surprises with their setup. One year it was a towering dinosaur with a Christmas present in its mouth. This year is was lighted flying unicorns! The people driving by at night were treated to quite a spectacle for Christmas. Inside the church (that is how we split the decorating duties, with the Mission taking the outside and us taking care of the inside) we decorate in a much more subdued manner but the wreaths lining the walls, the tree in the corner, a few poinsettias here and there really helped the church and social hall (which were originally designed to be the school lunchroom and gymnasium) look beautiful without being glitzy. And let’s not forget the newly donated Nativity scene back in the corner. This was our first year using it and already there are plans for making it even more spectacular next year. And did you notice the Three Kings traveling to Bethlehem? They sort of hung out on the organ for a while as they followed the star and made it to the creche only on Epiphany. I am also very thankful for all the people who made our Masses so prayerfully majestic. The Mass parts chanted by the choir at the solemn and high Masses could convert a pagan with no need of further theology or biblical knowledge. I am very thankful for the extra clergy and quasi-clergy who made themselves available for the unexpectedly high number of Solemn High Masses recently, too. (As two sidenotes within this section: 1. Fr. Vincent Capuano, SJ, who has been celebrating Mass here for several years, and who has never accepted any stipend but wished rather to be simply “rewarded” by being able to celebrate the TLM, is being transferred to Argentina. His last day with us will be February 2 so be sure to say your “farewells” beforehand; 2. Fr. Mangiafico has long been a “cheerleader” for this parish and now that he has retired from retirement duties he is here in person quite a bit. He has donated so much to us in the form of liturgical items that he, in reality, actually pays us for the privilege of being here! I am very thankful for both holy priests.) Of course, we couldn’t properly celebrate the Mass without our servers, and I am thankful we have so many boys and men who wish to serve at God’s altar. Having our new group of men serve the 5th Sunday of any given month, plus a few of the big Masses, is a blessing. Many times for our biggest celebrations we have had only the most inexperienced boys able to serve, putting them in the position of serving at roles for which they were not yet ready to be trained, let alone master. Putting men into those roles takes the pressure off the young boys and puts it all on the adults. It also allows the boys in the pews to be very attentive at Mass, for they all want to take good note of what their dad did wrong while serving! I am also thankful for those who train and set the server schedule, both of which are very demanding tasks. I am thankful for my sacristans and teachers and Sunday breakfast people and various activity leaders but I really must end my incomplete list somewhere. So, finally, I give thanks to God for all of the people who (spearheaded by the parish’s Council of Catholic Women) put together last week’s Epiphany celebration. Decorators, setup guys, tent cleanup guys, food preparers and servers, kitchen cleanup crew, planners, CGS, AHG, and last but not least, attendees, all came together for our parish’s Feast Day Luncheon and made it incredible. Although there is no way of naming everyone who worked tirelessly to make it such a success, two parishioners do deserve special mention, though they will both probably cringe when they find out that their names are here. Julann Roe baked almost all of the bread that was in the breadbaskets, which took her untold hours immediately before the event, and Robin Johnson designed, created, and shopped for the decorative theme that transformed the tent into the beautiful venue that it was. You really outdid yourself. Many thanks! With prayers for your holiness, Rev. Fr. Edwin Palka Blessing of Homes on Epiphany
(adapted from the Roman Ritual for use by the laity) The head of the household (the husband/father, if he is present) leads the prayers, saying: Leader: We ask that God’s peace be in this home. All: And in all who live here. Leader: Magi from the East came to Bethlehem to adore the Lord; and opening their treasure chests they presented Him with precious gifts: gold for the great King, incense for the true God, and myrrh in symbol of His burial. Alleluia. Canticle of the Magnificat (Luke 1:46-55) Leader: My soul doth magnify the Lord... All: And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior. Because He hath regarded the humility of His handmaid; for behold from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed. Because He that is mighty, hath done great things to me; and holy is His name. And His mercy is from generation unto generations, to them that fear Him. He hath shewed might in His arm: He hath scattered the proud in the conceit of their heart. He hath put down the mighty from their seat, and hath exalted the humble. He hath filled the hungry with good things; and the rich He hath sent empty away. He hath received Israel his servant, being mindful of His mercy: As He spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his seed for ever. Leader: Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost... All: As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen. All: Magi from the East came to Bethlehem to adore the Lord; and opening their treasure chests they presented Him with precious gifts: gold for the great King, incense for the true God, and myrrh in symbol of His burial. Alleluia. The home is sprinkled with exorcised and blessed Epiphany Holy Water. Then the prayers continue: Leader: Our Father... All: Who art in Heaven... (and continue the rest of the prayer) Leader: Many shall come from Saba. All: Bearing gold and incense. Leader: Lord, heed my prayer. All: And let my cry be heard by You. Leader: Almighty God, who on this day revealed Your only-begotten Son to all nations by the guidance of a star, grant that we who now know You by faith may finally behold You in Your heavenly majesty; We ask this through Christ our Lord. All: Amen. Leader: Be enlightened and shine forth, O Jerusalem, for your light is come; and upon you is risen the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ born of the Virgin Mary. Nations shall walk in your light, and kings in the splendor of your birth. All: And the glory of the Lord is risen upon you. Leader: Lord God almighty, we ask You to bless this home, and under its shelter let there be health, chastity, self-conquest, humility, goodness, mildness, obedience to Your commandments, and thanksgiving to God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. May Your blessing remain always in this home and on those who live here; through Christ our Lord. All: Amen. The lintel of the main door of the house (and other doors if desired) is marked, using the Blessed Epiphany Chalk, in the following way: 20 + C + M + B + 20 The letters have two meanings. They are the initials of the traditional names of the Three Magi: Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar. They also abbreviate the Latin words “Christus mansionem benedicat.” “May Christ bless the house.” The letters recall the day on which the inscription is made, as well as the purpose of blessing. The numbers enclosing them indicate the year. The crosses represent the protection of the Precious Blood of Christ, Whom we invoke, and the holiness of the Three Magi sanctified by their adoration of the Infant Christ. The inscription is made above the front door, so that all who enter and depart this year may enjoy God’s blessing. The month of January still bears the name of the Roman god Janus, the doorkeeper of heaven and protector of the beginning and end of things. This blessing “christens” the ancient Roman observance of the first month. The inscription is made of chalk, a product of clay, which recalls the human nature taken by the Adorable and Eternal Word of God in the womb of the Virgin Mary, by the power of the Holy Ghost. From the Pastor: A Father Palka Christmas
Once again this year I have to write the bulletin article for the weekend after Christmas early since the office will be closed after Christmas and we have to print the bulletins while the staff is still here. So I get to tell you the story of how I spent Christmas by jocosely using my clerical time machine. Enjoy a peek into the life of a priest on Christmas Day! I would be glad to tell you all about how beautiful, reverent, and prayerful the Christmas Masses were. I would be delighted to write a column thanking everyone who helped to decorate, clean up, set up, sing, serve, and everything else that goes into Christmas celebrations. But, while that would be an honorable and perhaps even a moving tribute to all of our dedicated staff and volunteers, it wouldn’t be nearly as entertaining as telling you what happened at my sister’s house after everyone woke up from an all too short, “post Midnight Mass” snooze. And so the story begins midmorning on Christmas Day while I was celebrating the morning Mass at Epiphany. My sister’s house was bustling with friends and relatives, including our favorite Aunt, Irma. As many of you know from past stories, whenever she is around, weird stuff happens, and “weird” might be too tame a word. But this time, just to make sure that she couldn’t get into too much trouble, she had a simple task to keep her occupied: bake French toast for brunch. On Christmas Eve I had sliced the bread and left it soaking in an egg and milk mixture in sheet pans in the rectory refrigerator overnight for her to just “take and bake”. It was foolproof. She had a task to do, she felt needed, she couldn’t get into trouble simply turning on the oven, and hungry people love the cook. Soon the whole house, yard, and neighborhood were filled with the wonderful aroma of toasted coconut. What? You’ve never had toasted coconut French toast? Me neither, but that is what Aunt Irma was baking, with thick slices of Panettone which, if you don’t know (poor you!), is a rich, Italian form of brioche bread with fruit baked into it. Oven-baked toasted coconut Panettone French toast. Wow, what a Christmas treat! The kids could hardly wait and the adults were pretty jealous of them getting first dibs. The youngsters gobbled up as much as they could eat just as fast as they devour the donuts after Sunday Mass. Then the adults came in for the next batch and boy, did they compliment the cook. But after they finished their meal they noticed that the children were acting a bit, well, they were all acting just like Aunt Irma. It’s hard to describe their actions exactly but everyone assumed that the kids were just playing a game of imitating her. It was just about then that I finally got over to the house, having locked up the church for the day. Although I was exhausted, I wasn’t so tired that I didn’t notice how strange even the grownups were acting. The women seemed to have a bad case of the giggles. A few of the men were telling jokes and funny stories, each trying to top the other, while a couple more were arguing belligerently, the women just kept snickering like schoolgirls, and the kids were wild. To me, as one just walking in off the streets, it was pretty obvious that everyone was tipsy! “What in the world have you been doing?” I asked, “How much have you had to drink already?” But nobody had so much as even opened the first bottle of wine so early in the day. “We just had breakfast!” they said and told me what they ate. I had noticed the delightful aroma as soon as I had gotten there but had been too distracted by their odd behavior to pay any attention to it. But now, hearing what Aunt Irma had fixed for them, I was beginning to get a clear picture of what happened. You see, I had brought with me the trays of French toast she was supposed to have taken to bake that morning and which I had discovered still in the rectory refrigerator. “Aunt Irma,” I called to the figure in the kitchen, “Did you get the fixin’s for the French toast from the rectory when you came by last night?” She replied with a sweet, almost condescending, “Of course, sweetie. I gathered up all of the bread and French toast batter from your kitchen. Why? Is there a problem?” I couldn’t bear to tell her that the Panettone loaves were actually gifts that Fr. Chien was planning giving out that afternoon on behalf of St. Joseph Vietnamese Mission! As for the “coconut French toast batter” she found in the refrigerator, what she actually discovered and used was several gallons of a delightful drink some cookbooks call “Carribean eggnog” which a parishioner gifted us with this year. Instead of using eggs and cream as in typical eggnog, this form of eggless eggnog, called “Coquito,” uses coconut and coconut cream as the base. Oh, and one more very important ingredient. Rum. Lots of rum. As in enough rum that thick, luscious slices of Panettone soaked in it, even when baked in the oven, does not burn off the alcohol. As in enough that children should not eat it ever, nor should adults consume it for breakfast. And that was just the beginning of Christmas Day with my family. How was yours? With prayers for your holiness, Rev. Fr. Edwin Palka From the Pastor: The Lord’s Birth is Near!
The following passage, snipped a little to fit the bulletin, is taken from The City of God, a book of visions experienced by Venerable Mary of Agreda. She is recounting the Holy Family’s last day of travel to Bethlehem a few hours before Our Lord’s Birth. One thing that struck me this year as I read it again is that even the cave they stayed at in Bethlehem was not offered by any relative but was only “discovered” due to a vague memory of St. Joseph. Beyond being told “There is no room at the Inn”, they were not even offered the stable! Enjoy this snippet of Venerable Mary of Agreda’s mystical vision. 460. The heavenly Lady [Mary] observed and knew the secrets of the different souls of those She met, penetrating into the very thoughts and conditions of each, whether of grace or of guilt in their different degrees. Concerning many souls She also knew whether they were predestined or reprobate, whether they would persevere, fall, or again rise up. All this variety of insight moved Her to the exercise of heroic virtues as well in regard to the ones as to the others. For many of them She obtained the grace of perseverance, for others efficacious help to rise from their sin to grace; for others again She prayed to the Lord with affectionate tears, feeling intensest sorrow for the reprobate, though She did not pray as efficaciously for them... The sick, afflicted and indigent whom She met on the way, She consoled and assisted by asking her most holy Son to come to their aid in their necessities and adversities. She kept Herself silently aloof from the multitude, preoccupied with the Fruit of her divine pregnancy, which was already evident to all. Such was the return which the Mother of mercy made for the inhospitality of mortals... 462... [O]ur travelers arrived at the town of Bethlehem at four o'clock of the fifth day, a Saturday. As it was at the time of the winter solstice, the sun was already sinking and the night was falling. They entered the town, and wandered through many streets in search of a lodging-house or inn for staying overnight. They knocked at the doors of their acquaintances and nearer family relations; but they were admitted nowhere and in many places they met with harsh words and insults. The most modest Queen followed her spouse through the crowds of people, while he went from house to house and from door to door. Although She knew that the hearts and the houses of men were to be closed to them, and although to expose her state at her age to the public gaze was more painful to her modesty than their failure to procure a night-lodging, She nevertheless wished to obey saint Joseph and suffer this indignity and unmerited shame. While wandering through the streets they passed the office of the public registry and they inscribed their names and paid the fiscal tribute in order to comply with the edict and not be obliged to return. They continued their search, betaking themselves to other houses. But having already applied at more than fifty different places, they found themselves rejected and sent away from them all. The heavenly spirits were filled with astonishment at these exalted mysteries of the Most High, which manifested the patience and meekness of his Virgin Mother and the unfeeling hardness of men... 463. It was nine o'clock at night when the most faithful Joseph, full of bitter and heartrending sorrow, returned to his most prudent Spouse and said: "My sweetest Lady, my heart is broken with sorrow at the thought of not only not being able to shelter Thee as Thou deservest and as I desire, but in not being able to offer Thee even any kind of protection from the weather, or a place of rest, a thing rarely or never denied to the most poor and despised in the world. No doubt heaven, in thus allowing the hearts of men to be so unmoved as to refuse us a night-lodging, conceals some mystery. I now remember, Lady, that outside the city walls there is a cave, which serves as a shelter for shepherds and their flocks. Let us seek it out; perhaps it is unoccupied, and we may there expect some assistance from heaven, since we receive none from men on earth." The most prudent Virgin answered: "My spouse and my master, let not thy kindest heart be afflicted because the ardent wishes which the love of thy Lord excites in thee cannot be fulfilled. Since I bear Him in my womb, let us, I beseech thee, give thanks for having disposed events in this way. The place of which thou speakest shall be most satisfactory to me. Let thy tears of sorrow be turned into tears of joy, and let us lovingly embrace poverty, which is the inestimable and precious treasure of my most holy Son. He came from heaven in order to seek it, let us then afford Him an occasion to practice it in the joy of our souls; certainly I cannot be better delighted than to see thee procure it for me. Let us go gladly wherever the Lord shall guide us." The holy angels accompanied the heavenly pair, brilliantly lighting up the way, and when they arrived at the city gate they saw that the cave was forsaken and unoccupied. Full of heavenly consolation, they thanked the Lord for this favor, and then happened what I shall relate in the following chapter. With prayers for your holiness, Rev. Fr. Edwin Palka From the Pastor: Physical and Spiritual Handicap Door Openers
Last week you saw the framework for the new handicap ramp leading into the church and social hall. This week you can see that the concrete has been poured and is setting up. Perhaps by next weekend we will be given the green light to use the new ramp and steps. So the next step is to get the doors fixed up. So far we have not had any suggestions for which companies to use (or to stay away from!) so we are probably just going to have to randomly choose a number of door companies or handicap specialty shops to come by and give us a quote. Once we have expert advice as to what should be done and what needs to be done, I will be able to let you know what the cost will be. Already, though, several parishioners have stepped forward with donations specifically for the new doors and door openers. Thank you for your great generosity! One of the nicest things about the new ramp is the visible problem which is visibly solved. People with wheelchairs previously had no choice but to go around the church to enter by means of the ramp which was as far from the handicap parking spots as possible. Visitors had an especially difficult time even finding our crazy access. Those with walkers or canes, for the most part, couldn’t make the long walk around the building to access the ramp, so everyone saw them struggle to get up and down the stairs on a regular basis. They were the visible reminders that we had a problem that needed to be solved. Everyone was constantly afraid that some frail and/or elderly parishioner would fall down the steps. Many prayers were silently prayed for their safety! But what about the invisible needs? During these last days of Advent, I hope you will consider that there are many other needs, some of which are much more important than the physical challenge of getting into a church building, which Our Lord may be asking us to find solutions to as well. I will mention two such things. First of all, how many of our parishioners might be alone for Christmas, with no family or friends to share the day? They generally won’t tell anyone that they will be alone so it is difficult to see the need. You might feel silly asking someone, even if you know them to be a widow or widower, if they need a place to go for a family celebration of Christmas, afraid that you will hurt their feelings if they have plenty of family and friends around but you forgot or never heard that part of their life’s story. You might not even know how to ask, assuming that any “outsiders” from church might feel out of place if your family is opening presents and they, being invited to join you at the last minute, have no gifts to give or receive. But maybe, just maybe, you will help someone with an invisible handicap called “loneliness” if you work up the courage and love to ask them to join you and your family for Christmas. Look around. Check your memories. Is there a new, young couple in town who might be missing extended family for the first time? Is there a man who lost his job and is struggling to put together a feast for his wife and kids? Is there an older couple whose kids and grandchildren are scattered through various states and who would actually love to put up with your little ones running around making a mess? Maybe you could invite them to join you for Christmas! Build the friendship ramp! Another invisible need might not be found so easily, yet is even more important to fix. How many of you have neighbors and/or coworkers who have left the Faith? Perhaps they seem to be doing well, have a good job or are enjoying retirement, have good health, a nice family, maybe even a better car and house than you, yet have turned away from God and His Church. To them, Christmas once had meaning but now it might only be an excuse to give and get presents or to have a nice dinner somewhere. They no longer believe that they need a Savior, so His birth is nothing more than an excuse for a holiday. If they still believe in Heaven, they assume they will get there no matter what. Whether they lost Faith due to scandal, or due to their own lack of commitment to prayer, or because they had no real Catholic education (even if they went to Catholic schools), or simply on account of busyness with everyday cares and wanting to sleep in on Sundays, they have the mostly unnoticed but crippling disease of apostasy. They have, without, most likely, ever verbalizing it, given up all rights they once had, as baptized members of God’s Family, to Eternal Life in Heaven. Is there any way that you could build a spiritual handicap ramp for them? Maybe a ramp is too much of an undertaking right away. Start with just spiritually opening the door for them as you did here physically with the parishioners with walkers. Invite them to Midnight Mass with you. Bring them a church bulletin each week. Enthusiastically tell them about the Latin Mass or Adoration or even the potlucks. Sometimes all they need is someone (you!) to show some interest, to open the door, to give a simple invitation to come and rediscover Christ’s love. With prayers for your holiness, Rev. Fr. Edwin Palka From the Pastor: Watch Out For Construction!
This week construction started on our new handicap ramp at the church. There is already a ramp for those who need it but it is strangely located on the side of the church opposite the parking lot! People can and do use it occasionally but it requires them to either go all the way around the church to access it or to park on the grass, away from most other people, which means that if they should have an accident, tip over their wheelchair, or fall from their walker, it is possible that they would lie there for quite some time before being discovered. Also, the old ramp only supplies access to the church up near the sanctuary so if anyone wants to enter the social hall while Mass or Adoration is in process, they have no choice but to come in through the church and, at least in their own mind, distracting those trying to pray. The new ramp will allow access from the parking lot near the handicap spots into both the social hall and the church, making it much more convenient for everyone involved. Unfortunately, it means that those much-used doors will not be functional until the construction is complete, the handrails are installed, and the cement has hardened. Will that be only one weekend or two? When it comes to construction schedules, only God knows! In the meantime, if you have trouble walking long distances, you might be better off parking closer to the front doors of the church rather than in the handicap spots so that you can get in easier. And, of course, the old ramp will remain usable even if it is not a perfect choice. Once the ramp is complete, we will need to replace the outside doors with those which can open with a push-button. If any of you have any expertise or experience in this area (doors, electronic mechanical openers, locks, trustworthy installers, etc.), please let me know. We can also use push-button operation thingies (that is the Latin technical name for them, or so I am told) for the swinging doors separating the social hall from the church. The cost of the ramp is being underwritten by some anonymous parishioners who saw the need and volunteered to do something about it. Many thanks to them. A few prayers for them from each of you reading this right now would also be wonderful! On Saturday, December 7, a day which some of you might be reading this, there was a Rorate Coeli Solemn High Mass at Jesuit High School’s chapel. Obviously, I cannot tell you much about it since I am writing about it before it occurs but I hope you were able to attend. The chapel is beautiful, the acoustics are phenomenal, and a Mass by candlelight honoring the Blessed Mother is always a treat. We will have another Rorate Mass, this one at Epiphany, next Saturday, December 14. It, too, will start at 6:30 am, not at the normal 8:00 am Mass time on Saturday, for it is supposed to begin in the dark and end as light is dawning upon the world. Our Lady brings forth, as a result of her “fiat,” the Light of the World which scatters the darkness of sin and brings salvation to all who believe and accept and live all that He taught, most notably by entering His Church and receiving the Sacraments worthily. So mark your calendars, set your alarm a bit earlier than normal, and come for the 6:30 Mass next Saturday. Note that there will not be an 8:00 Mass that day but confessions will still be available at or around the normal time. Finally, the Holy League Men’s Group will meet this Thursday after taking a day off for Thanksgiving which fell on our last scheduled meeting day. Men, if you haven’t been to one of these meetings or haven’t been in a while, I want to encourage you to come and see what you have been missing. We start at 6:00 pm with the Angelus and Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. Most guys are not there at the very beginning, as they are still stuck in traffic after work, but they trickle in when then can, so don’t be worried if you know you will be late. Vespers, or Evening Prayer, is chanted by two of the men (the rest have been taught how to join in and do so as they are able) and a rosary is led following the chanted prayers. I hear confessions during this time and then return to give the Benediction. After the pray time, we retire to the social hall to continue discussing St. Pius X’s Catechism. We are up to the section on the 4th commandment, one which those of you with children still at home certainly don’t want to miss! Last of all, we have time to socialize with other men who are struggling mightily to become better Catholic men, better fathers, better husbands, or, put succinctly, great saints. A bit of food and manly drink and even an occasional Ave Maria cigar accompany the social time for those who wish to participate in those ways, but they are in no way mandatory. Our next meeting after this Thursday (we meet on the second and fourth Thursdays) is the day after Christmas. At this week’s meeting, we will determine if there is any interest in keeping that on the schedule or not. If you are not there, you won’t get a voice in that decision! With prayers for your holiness, Rev. Fr. Edwin Palka From the Pastor: 50 Year Anniversary of Novus Ordo!
Fifty years ago, on the First Sunday of Advent in 1969, everything changed. It was on that fateful day when the New Order of Mass (Novus Ordo in Latin) was mandated to be celebrated throughout the world. In the Church, as in the world, we like to celebrate anniversaries. 50 years is always considered a very special anniversary. But I don’t see any celebrations, large or small, for the Novus Ordo Mass. There has been no special promulgation, no encyclical written, no apostolic letter sent out, nor even diocesan luncheons. There has been nothing but silence. Why? Why would the Church leaders remain close-mouthed about something that greatly affected every single Catholic and indirectly, at least, every non-Catholic? Why, when the Novus Ordo Mass is constantly promoted as the greatest thing since sliced bread, aren’t we witnessing great processions through the streets of Rome, huge diocesan Masses with the bishops rallying all of their priests, or even individual pastors celebrating special Masses anywhere in the world? I think it is pretty obvious. Because, no matter what “everybody” says, the Novus Ordo Mass has been a failed experiment and celebrating it would put the focus where “they” don’t want it to be. Let me sidetrack for just a moment. I constantly hear from priests that I should never say that one Form of Mass is better than the other. They give this command even though I generally don’t tell my fellow priests that I am thoroughly convinced that the Traditional Latin Mass is much more efficacious and far more pleasing to God than the Novus Ordo Mass. I don’t have to tell them. They know, just from the way I speak about my parish and what we do and why we exist, what I believe. And they don’t want to hear it. So they tell me that a Mass is a Mass is a Mass and that the Form I celebrate (most of the time, anyway) is not any better or worse than the Form they celebrate. The funny thing is, though, that they don’t believe what they say. They believe that the Novus Ordo Mass is much superior to the Traditional Latin Mass. How do I know? Because they won’t even attempt to celebrate the TLM. Most look at it with contempt and even the most “open-minded” see it as a quaint relic of days before the Novus Ordo Enlightenment. Once that line of communication is open, though, I sometimes have the opportunity to put a bug in their ear about why I believe what I believe. The people don’t know Latin! So what? My parishioners know that the Mass isn’t a dinner party (we need more food and drink if it is) but is, rather, the Holy Sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, Who took on our human nature, perfectly offering Himself to the Father in an unbloody way just as He did in a bloody manner two thousand years ago. The same sacrifice. Even those who cannot read or hear or see can enter into that sacrifice! But what about the little old ladies praying their rosary? Isn’t that showing that they don’t know what is happening? Strange that you don’t realize that the Mass is presenting to us the Life, Death, and Resurrection of Our Lord and that the little old ladies are meditating on the Life, Death, and Resurrection of Our Lord as they pray the rosary! But the people don’t get to have full, active, and conscious participation since the priest reads all of the readings, prays all of the prayers, and distributes Holy Communion himself! 97% of your Novus Ordo Mass parishioners aren’t lectors or EMHCs, either, you idiot! (I sometimes lack perfect charity.) But certainly, you must admit that the 2 and 3 year cycle of readings is much better than hearing the same old thing year after year. And it certainly makes it easier to preach when the content is always new. No, I don’t admit to any such thing. The Mass is not a Bible study. If it is, it is a poorly designed class. After 50 years of the new lectionary, are Catholics really better Bible scholars? Are the priests really better preachers? Rhetorical questions, obviously. The TLM converted the world from paganism. Under the NOM paganism is regaining its prior stronghold and nothingism is battling for prominence. That brings us back to why there are no celebrations. Statistics show quite clearly that millions of people left the Church when the NOM was forced upon them. Many who stayed and most of those who grew up in the new Mass don’t believe in even the core teachings. Only 30% of active(!) NOM Catholics believe that the Eucharist is really, truly and substantially Jesus’ Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity. 98% of TLM Catholics believe. No, there is nothing to celebrate and “they” would look foolish if they tried. True faith has collapsed, religious life is decimated, pews are empty, vocations have tanked, and marriage and other sacraments are mocked or ignored. There is absolutely no statistical proof that in the past 50 years the Catholic Faith is stronger, more widespread, better practiced, or changing the world for the better. A celebration of a failed venture might open people’s eyes to the disastrous results, and the 50 year old NOM mantra “old is bad, new is great” would be seen for what it is. So they tell me, “Don’t rock the boat. Let sleeping dogs lie. Ignorance is bliss.” What would the prophet Ezekiel say? Jeremiah? The Apostles? With prayers for your holiness, Rev. Fr. Edwin Palka From the Pastor: Novena Prayer and Mass Intentions
Stories about priests nowadays tend to focus on something they did wrong. But every once in a while you might hear a story about a priest who gets things right. I am about to tell you one of those stories. Six years ago a priest showed up at my rectory where he would be a guest for the extent of his studies at the local university. He was from Tanzania, Africa, and had never been to the United States. This priest, Fr. Emmanuel Ndechihiro, was a quiet, even shy, skinny young man. He knew nothing about me except that I had agreed to let him stay. He knew very little of what to expect in the USA. His Bishop had sent him, via an academic scholarship, to get an undergraduate degree in mathematics so that he could teach once he returned home. (Their schools are staffed by priests and religious so that they don’t have to pay salaries, for they will work for merely room and board!) I could tell many stories about what it was like watching him experience things that are common for us but mind-boggling for him, such as seeing a grocery store for the first time, with more food than he had seen in his entire life. But of all the stories about him, the best is simply that he was a very holy, prayerful, and faithful priest. He studied hard and it was not just because he enjoyed studying but more so because his Bishop sent him here for that purpose. Obedience was key. He got an undergraduate degree, then a Masters and then his Bishop asked him to get a Ph.D. Out of obedience, he said “yes” to each request. But recently the workload of Ph.D. courses, plus having to teach (required by the scholarship) and grade papers each and every day started taking a toll on his prayer life. He noticed that he rushed through his priestly duties to get to his “necessary” academic duties. He realized that if he kept up the pace and stayed on that path, he would soon be a very poor priest, and not in a monetary sense of the word “poor.” As I said, though, this is a story about a priest who gets things right, so he took an unwanted but necessary action. He prayed in what little time he had for prayer and decided to ask his Bishop if he could return home without the degree but while he still cared about and cherished his priesthood. Fortunately, he has an understanding Bishop and he was given permission to withdraw from classes and return home. It hurt him to have to ask such a thing. It hurt him to think that he might be disappointing his Bishop. It hurt him to see that he had compromised and shortchanged his priestly ministry and duties for the sake of things that, while good in and of themselves, were much less important. It hurt to leave good friends. He never wanted to burden anyone with his struggles in that area, but he was hurting as he said his good-byes. One of our dear parishioners pointed out that he might need more prayers right now than we know. She asked if we might pray a novena for him. I think that is a great idea. I suggest praying the Novena of Grace to St. Francis Xavier, Patron Saint of African Missions, which, by Divine coincidence, starts November 24! Please pray it for nine consecutive days for any spiritual, emotional or physical healing Fr. Emmanuel might need so that he can be a reinvigorated, holy priest. The novena prayer is inserted in today’s bulletin [on our website: see it below this article]. Thank you for joining in these prayers for him! The next topic is about Mass intentions. The Mass Intention Book will be opened the first week of December. (Please do not bother Kim or Mark at Mass regarding even such important and holy things like Mass intentions, for they get bothered so much that they cannot truly pray and sometimes have to go elsewhere for Mass just so that they can pray in peace! They are at Mass for Mass, not so that you can treat them like an “OPEN SUNDAY” branch office of the rectory.) The Masses available include the Novus Ordo weekday Masses both in English and Vietnamese, the Saturday evening Novus Ordo Vigil Mass, both TLM Sunday Masses, the 6:30 TLM weekday Masses and the Saturday morning 8:00 am TLM. In other words, we don’t take Mass intentions for the Sunday Vietnamese Masses or the Monday through Friday 8:00 TLMs. I reserve those weekday 8 am Masses for “emergency” Masses, such as when one of you comes with a request for an injured friend or a relative who just passed away. The Mass stipend requested is $10 for those which go into the book (paid when you request the Mass, please) and ZERO for the 8:00 special requests (priests can only take one Mass stipend per day and I will have normally accepted one for the early Mass, so I don’t take one for the second Mass!). Please don’t wait until the day before the anniversary of your grandmother’s death to ask for a Mass for her, or chances are slim you will get it. Plan ahead. Ask for it when the book for next year first opens. This year I am setting a limit of 21 Masses by any one family (my rule, not Canon Law). You will see another reminder of this in next week’s bulletin as well. With prayers for your holiness, Rev. Fr. Edwin Palka St. Francis Xavier Novena (for Fr. Emmanuel) Pray for nine days beginning Nov. 24th. Feast Day: Dec. 3 O St. Francis Xavier, well beloved and full of charity, in union with thee, I reverently adore the Majesty of God; and since I rejoice with exceeding joy in the singular gifts of grace bestowed upon thee during thy life, and thy gifts of glory after death, I give Him hearty thanks therefore; I beseech thee with all my heart’s devotion to be pleased to obtain for me, by thy effectual intercession, above all things, the grace of living and dying in a state of grace. Moreover, I beg of thee to obtain any spiritual, emotional or physical healing Fr. Emmanuel might need so that he can be a reinvigorated, holy priest. But if what I ask of thee so earnestly doth not tend to the glory of God and the greater good of my soul, do thou, I pray, obtain for me what is more profitable to both these ends. Amen. Our Father… Hail Mary… Glory Be… (Special Font for Fr. Emmanuel: Cambria Math!) From the Pastor: St. Jude Award, Latin Class, and Sisters
Next weekend we will celebrate the final Sunday of the Liturgical Year. Every year on this particular Sunday it is customary in our diocese that the Bishop bestows a St. Jude Award medal upon someone whom each pastor chooses, in recognition of important work done for the benefit of the parish, often with little to no recompense or fanfare. Time and time again the recipients are shocked as much as they are honored when they receive a letter inviting them to the ceremony. This year I chose an employee of the parish to receive the medal. He is a man whose value I knew nothing of when I first came to Epiphany. I had not expected to need his talents for I had done without them for years before at other parishes. Yet I was fortunate enough to have trusted the advice and pleading of others who assured me of his great worth and so I gave him a part-time job. It was a good decision. Perhaps it was a wise one, perhaps just a lucky one, but a good one nonetheless. You see, at my last two previous assignments, the celebration of the Traditional Latin Mass was limited to the Low Mass. Once Bishop (now retired) Lynch saw the light, jumped on the Traditional bandwagon with great gusto and made Epiphany Tampa’s Center for the Traditional Latin Mass in order to give it greater exposure and make it available to far more people, I, for the first time, needed a schola so that we could also have Sung Masses. In case you haven’t figured it out yet, Anders Bergmann, the director of the schola, is this year’s St. Jude Award recipient. I am very grateful for the hard work and dedication that it takes to train and lead the great schola he has put together. And God bless his wife, Katherine, who takes care of all of their children without his assistance while he is busy! If group awards were given out I would have asked for one medal for each member of the schola and family. The ceremony is open to anyone who wishes to attend. It will be held at the Cathedral of St. Jude the Apostle in St. Petersburg at 3:00 pm on Sunday, November 24. (FYI, here’s some background information on what a “schola” is from Britannica.com: “Schola cantorum, medieval papal singing school and associated choir, the ancestor of the modern Sistine Choir. According to tradition, the schola cantorum was established by Pope Sylvester I (d. 335) and was reorganized by Pope Gregory I (d. 604), but the first written mention of it dates from the 8th century. The purpose of the schola was to teach both singing techniques and the plainsong repertory, which was then learned by oral tradition. Under Pope Gregory the course of study was said to be nine years. In the gradual standardization of Western church chant, the schola’s musicians were a prime influence.”) On a different note, so to speak (or is that “so to chant”?), one of our parishioners has volunteered to teach another Latin class! This one is going to be different than our last one in that we are looking for families who want to learn Latin together. It should be quite different than any language class you have already taken elsewhere. It will be an attempt to make understanding the Latin used in the Mass become a fun family project, with multiple people of obviously varying ages and abilities all helping each other uncover the “secret code” of our liturgical tongue. Small families (around here that might mean fewer than five kids!) and individuals will be teamed up with others so you can come even if nobody else in your family or circle of friends wishes to join you. Watch for more information coming up soon and talk it up in the meantime. The last item for the day is a request for prayerful assistance for our girls entering into religious life. Last Lent the Epiphany Council of Catholic Women asked you to participate in their “Pennies for Semmies” campaign, encouraging you to pray for our seminarians and to make a monetary donation to help them with their expenses while they are in formation for the priesthood. This Advent the ECCW is asking you to participate in something very similar for our young women who are in formation to become Religious Sisters. They are calling this campaign “Cents for Sisters” and it will officially kick off in two weeks, so this notice is just a “heads up” to get you prepared. I am also using it as a request. I am much less informed about the needs of those entering into the first stages of Religious Life (whether they be girls discerning a call to be a Sister or Nun or boys looking at becoming a Brother) than I am about those young men discerning priesthood. If your child, male or female, has in the past or is now in some stage of Religious Life formation, I (and the ECCW) could use your input as to how best to help without overstepping bounds or getting in the way or seeming to ignore their real needs. We also want to be sure that we have the names of all of our parishioners who are in formation of one sort or another. So if you have good information to share, please contact either me or someone in the ECCW so that we can learn how best to support and encourage vocations. With prayers for your holiness, Rev. Fr. Edwin Palka From the Pastor: More on Pachamama Idolatry
Last week I showed a short quote from the online Catholic Encyclopedia’s listing on “Idolatry.” This week I want to share just a bit more from that entry, one that is both clear about the severeness of this sin and also quite soothing in its depiction of those who may commit that grievous sin unknowingly. This is found under the subheading: “Moral aspect” of Idolatry. “Considered in itself, idolatry is the greatest of mortal sins. For it is, by definition, an inroad on God's sovereignty over the world, an attempt on His Divine majesty, a rebellious setting up of a creature on the throne that belongs to Him alone. Even the simulation of idolatry, in order to escape death during persecution, is a mortal sin, because of the pernicious falsehood it involves and the scandal it causes. Of Seneca who, against his better knowledge, took part in idolatrous worship, St. Augustine says: ‘He was the more to be condemned for doing mendaciously what people believed him to do sincerely’. The guilt of idolatry, however, is not to be estimated by its abstract nature alone; the concrete form it assumes in the conscience of the sinner is the all-important element. No sin is mortal — i.e. debars man from attaining the end for which he was created — that is not committed with clear knowledge and free determination. But how many, or how few, of the countless millions of idolaters are, or have been, able to distinguish between the one Creator of all things and His creatures? and, having made the distinction, how many have been perverse enough to worship the creature in preference to the Creator? — It is reasonable, Christian, and charitable to suppose that the ‘false gods’ of the heathen were, in their conscience, the only true God they knew, and that their worship being right in its intention, went up to the one true God with that of Jews and Christians to whom He had revealed Himself. ‘In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ . . . . . the gentiles who have not the law, shall be judged by their conscience’ (Romans 2:14-16). God, who wishes all men to be saved, and Christ, who died for all who sinned in Adam, would be frustrated in their merciful designs if the prince of this world were to carry off all idolaters.” Did you notice that idolatry is the greatest of mortal sins? Greater than murder, abortion, homicide, eugenics, manslaughter, lynching, assassination, genocide, etc. Greater than any sexual sin whether that be onanism, fornication, adultery, bestiality, sodomy, prostitution, pedophilia, rape, or any other hideous perversion. Why is idolatry so evil? Because it is a direct attack against the might, majesty, love and very being of God. Yet the same article also seems to open wide the gate of the possibility that idol worshippers may not, due to lack of knowledge, be deprived of sanctifying grace (assuming they had it in the first place), for they know not what they do. Certainly, this shows a very “balanced” and “merciful” approach to the subject. Yet it does not mean that ignorance is bliss, for not all idolators are in invincible ignorance. For instance, the article is very clear that for those to whom the knowledge is imparted, the “simulation of idolatry” is yet more grave than actual idolatry. I know, you just read that, so why am I repeating it? To stress the point that nobody wearing a Roman collar can honestly claim ignorance of the grave sin of idolatry or its simulation. Nobody. No, clerics will be judged more severely than laity for, among other reasons, we (yes, I am included in this group) are supposed to know more than the average person when it comes to the tenets of Faith. We will all be judged according to what we know as well as what we are supposed to know. Let me assure you that even in the worst of seminaries, this recently enacted form of idolatry is not taught as a morally good thing. On the topic of whether or not idolatrous pagan religious rites were carried out to kick off the recent Amazon synod, here’s a quote from Lifesite News: “Paulo Suess, one of the key authors of the Amazon Synod's working document, commented on this ceremony, saying “so what. Even if it would have been a pagan rite, then it is nevertheless a pagan worship of God.” No, this is not a “so what” issue. This is out and out the “greatest of mortal sins.” And, with the exception of 7 cardinals and bishops who went public, there is silence from on high, or, worse, accusations that those denouncing this idolatry are enemies of the Church and Bishop of Rome. Do not believe it. The Faithful need real leadership (Apostles and martyrs, come to our aid) right now but effeminate priests fear that speaking the truth will get them in trouble with their Bishop. Emasculated Bishops fear that speaking the truth (or allowing their priests to do so) will get them in trouble with their own wimpy priests, their fellow Bishops, and their Boss Bishop. These fears are correctly held, I believe, but if priests and Bishops don’t overcome their fears, we will not be, in any real sense of the word, Catholic for very much longer, so what “job” of theirs will they be protecting through keeping silence or silencing others? As man cannot serve both God and Pachamama, so Pagan-Catholicism cannot get anyone to Heaven. The salt is losing its savour... With prayers for your holiness, Rev. Fr. Edwin Palka From the Pastor: Pachamama in Rome
Just in case some of you have not been following Catholic news recently, I want to present to you something that the rest of the world, Catholic or not, has been viewing, reading about, and hearing of for more than a week now. It is all part of the recently concluded “Amazon Synod.” No, I am not going to write about the women deaconettes which the final document recommends, nor am I going to write about the new Amazon Rite which will, I am sure, be taken up with great gusto by numerous priests and bishops who adamantly oppose only one particular Rite within the Church, nor will I even broach the topic of viri probati, the suggested married men who will “save” the Church by being ordained as priests. Heck, I am not even going to be writing about the poster that the Amazonian “missionaries” displayed showing the “circle of ecological life” which includes a woman holding a child while breastfeeding--not him--but a piglet. No, I am simply going to present to you something about the statues of naked, pregnant women which were part of a somehow non-idolatrous pagan Earth-worship ritual in the Vatican gardens with [ahem] certain high ranking clerics, whom I will leave unnamed, sitting in approval, and then later set up for worship and veneration in several churches nearby: Pachamama idols. What is Pachamama? Here is the opening paragraph of the Pachamama page of Wikipedia. “Pachamama is a goddess revered by the indigenous people of the Andes. She is also known as the earth/time mother.[1] In Inca mythology, Pachamama is a fertility goddess who presides over planting and harvesting, embodies the mountains, and causes earthquakes. She is also an ever-present and independent deity who has her own self-sufficient and creative power to sustain life on this earth.[1] Her shrines are hallowed rocks, or the boles of legendary trees, and her artists envision her as an adult female bearing harvests of potatoes and coca leaves.[2] The four cosmological Quechua principles – Water, Earth, Sun, and Moon[2] – claim Pachamama as their prime origin. Priests sacrifice llamas, cuy (guinea pigs), and elaborate, miniature, burned garments to her.[3] Pachamama is the mother of Inti the sun god and Mama Killa the moon goddess. Pachamama is said to also be the wife of Inti, her son.” You can find much more about the pagan rituals to this idol, the sacrificial offerings to this “Mother Earth”, and the New Age interpretations of her worship with very little effort, so I will not include more. “Certainly,” you must be thinking, “no Pachamamas would ever be prostrated before, blessed, and enthroned by any real Catholic, let alone high-ranking members of the Church!”, but you would be wrong. Although the Prefect of the Holy See’s Dicastery for Communications, Paolo Ruffini, is quoted as saying, “There were no rituals. No prostration took place. We have repeated this here. We have to be rigorous in saying things that actually happened before cameras. We said that this did not happen”, it is the Vatican’s own video which shows what he denies. (Look up “gaslighting”.) “But certainly,” you might then follow up with, “nobody knew what they were! They must have thought them to be just ordinary statues!” Unfortunately, Wikipedia shows that Pachamama worship is found in Argentina and a certain Argentinan gave a short address in which he says quite clearly, “Good afternoon, I would like to say a word about the pachamama statues that were removed from the Church at Traspontina, which were there without idolatrous intentions and were thrown into the Tiber. First of all, this happened in Rome and, as bishop of [redacted to protect his identity -auth.], I ask pardon of the people who were offended by this act.” I cannot explain how idols can be prostrated before or honored in churches without idolatrous intent. Instead, let me quote the Catholic Encyclopedia’s article on Idolatry with emphasis on its result: The first undoubted mention of idolatry in the Bible is in Genesis 31:19: "Rachel stole away her father's idols [teraphim]", and when Laban overtook Jacob in his flight and made search for "his gods", Rachel "in haste hid the idols under the camel's furniture, and sat upon them" (31:34). Yet Laban also worshipped the same God as Jacob, whose blessing he acknowledges (30:27), and on whom he calls to judge between him and Jacob (30:53). A similar practice of blending reverence to the true God with the idolatrous worship of surrounding nations runs though [sic] the whole history of Israel. When Moses delayed to come down from the holy mount, the people, "gathering together against Aaron, said: Arise, make us gods, that may go before us". And Aaron made a molten calf, "and they said: These are thy gods, O Israel, that have brought thee out of the land of Egypt. And . . . they offered holocausts, and peace victims, and the people sat down to eat, and drink, and they rose up to play" (Exodus 32:1 sqq.). In Settim "the people committed fornication with the daughters of Moab, . . . and adored their gods. And Israel was initiated to Beelphegor" (Numbers 25:1-3). Again, after the death of Josue, "the children of Israel . . . served Baalim . . . and they followed strange gods, and the gods of the people that dwelt round about them" (Judges 2:11 sq.). Whenever the children of Israel did evil in the eyes of Jehovah, swift retribution overtook them; they were given into the hands of their enemies.” [emphasis mine -auth.] I need add nothing more. With prayers for your holiness, Rev. Fr. Edwin Palka From the Pastor: A Worthy Cause
Every once in a while people ask me if I know of any truly good Catholic charities. They have been frustrated by the seemingly endless accounts of money collected by various organizations within the church going to anti-Catholic organizations, misused through fraud, paying for coverups, etc. Besides this faithful parish’s weekly collection, where is a faithful Catholic going to give to God and His Church and His people and not worry about the money being used for immorality? We have a spiritual need to give. We have a moral obligation to give. We all know that. But who really needs the money and who will put it to good use? Today I have a very worthy group of Sisters who have a project which needs funding. I met Sr. Winifrida Daud, STH, years ago when I was the pastor of St. Rita and she was getting an education in administration at St. Leo University. We have kept in touch ever since. She is now the Superior of her Congregation and in charge of their school in Mwanza, Tanzania. I present below a bit of information she recently sent to me. I decided to edit it for length but not for grammar, but this is NOT coming from a Nigerian prince who wants to make you rich! PROJECT TITLE: PLANTING TREES AND CASSAVA FOR FOOD AND HELPING WOMEN DEVELOPMENT. Background information St Therese Sisters Congregation is committed to evangelization by carrying out spiritual and community development activities. The sisters work in various parishes, schools, hospitals, health centers and developments centers in different Dioceses, in three countries: Tanzania, Kenya and Burundi. The Congregation owns and administers some of these institutions. In order to further their mission of reaching out to the poor, in 2015, the community bought a small land in Nyanguge, Mwanza to start development area, we found that there are many people who not getting enough food due to the climate changes of not getting enough rain. The sisters plan to start the projects that will combat poverty and educate the people the importance of planting trees and cultivating crops which can sustain the dry season. Problem Statement Climate change is considered to be one of the most serious threats to sustainable development at Nyanguge. Normally Nyanguge area used to have rain from September to March. For three years this area got rain in October to January, this year the rain started in November to January. The dry season is longer than rain season. The people who live there depend on farming. The main crops are maize, rice and sweet potatoes. The farmers work hard in farming but they end up on little harvest due to the climate changes. In assessing the reason of not getting enough rain, we realized that many people cut trees for firewood without planting other trees. If we are note planting trees that area can endup becoming a desert. The Sisters of St. Therese are planning to start the project of planting trees and cassava faming to guide the people especially women to plant trees in their area to see if that area can have rain. Also the importance of planting crops like cassava which sustain dry season . The sisters are planning to organize the seminars in different groups about planting trees and cassava. We hope through this project and seminar the women and youths will be able to support their families and decrease poverty. We hope that if the sister will get support from you organization will be able to plant 2,000 trees and 8 acres of cassava at Nyanguge area. PROJECT OBJECTIVES: • To increase the awareness of keeping tree for the future generation To enhance the importance of planting trees To reduce the famine among the people who live there To chance the life of women in supporting their family To diminish poverty for having sustainable rain season. To diminish poverty for having sustainable cassava food project. [There is a bit more, but you get the picture. If you want more details about how you can help, contact me and I will get you more information. --Father Palka] With prayers for your holiness, Rev. Fr. Edwin Palka From the Pastor: A Reminder of Purgatory
This is a reminder that All Souls Day is coming soon. There is only one more Sunday before that day (a Saturday, this year) on which to bring in your list of the Faithful Departed whom you wish to have remembered at Mass. Unless and until Holy Mother Church declares any departed person to be in Heaven we rightfully pray for their soul in case they are still in need of final purification before entering for all eternity into the presence of God. Also remember that the first 8 days of November will bring opportunities to receive, on behalf of a soul in purgatory, a plenary indulgence by visiting a cemetery and praying for the poor souls. Below are excerpts of the Catholic Encyclopedia regarding Purgatory, a teaching rejected by almost all Protestants and seemingly, at least, ignored or ridiculed even by most current-day Catholics, and yet clearly taught and held to be a doctrine of the Faith. Catholic doctrine Purgatory (Lat., "purgare", to make clean, to purify) in accordance with Catholic teaching is a place or condition of temporal punishment for those who, departing this life in God's grace, are, not entirely free from venial faults, or have not fully paid the satisfaction due to their transgressions. Temporal punishment. That temporal punishment is due to sin, even after the sin itself has been pardoned by God, is clearly the teaching of Scripture. God indeed brought man out of his first disobedience and gave him power to govern all things (Wisdom 10:2), but still condemned him "to eat his bread in the sweat of his brow" until he returned unto dust. God forgave the incredulity of Moses and Aaron, but in punishment kept them from the "land of promise" (Numbers 20:12). The Lord took away the sin of David, but the life of the child was forfeited because David had made God's enemies blaspheme His Holy Name (2 Samuel 12:13-14). In the New Testament as well as in the Old, almsgiving and fasting, and in general penitential acts are the real fruits of repentance (Matthew 3:8; Luke 17:3; 3:3). The whole penitential system of the Church testifies that the voluntary assumption of penitential works has always been part of true repentance and the Council of Trent (Sess. XIV, can. xi) reminds the faithful that God does not always remit the whole punishment due to sin together with the guilt. God requires satisfaction, and will punish sin, and this doctrine involves as its necessary consequence a belief that the sinner failing to do penance in this life may be punished in another world, and so not be cast off eternally from God. Venial sins. All sins are not equal before God, nor dare anyone assert that the daily faults of human frailty will be punished with the same severity that is meted out to serious violation of God's law. On the other hand whosoever comes into God's presence must be perfectly pure for in the strictest sense His "eyes are too pure, to behold evil" (Habakkuk 1:13). For unrepented venial faults for the payment of temporal punishment due to sin at time of death, the Church has always taught the doctrine of purgatory. So deep was this belief ingrained in our common humanity that it was accepted by the Jews, and in at least a shadowy way by the pagans, long before the coming of Christianity. ("Aeneid," VI, 735 sq.; Sophocles, "Antigone," 450 sq.). Succouring the dead. Scripture and the Fathers command prayers and oblations for the departed, and the Council of Trent (Sess. XXV, "De Purgatorio") in virtue of this tradition not only asserts the existence of purgatory, but adds "that the souls therein detained are aided by the suffrages of the faithful and principally by the acceptable sacrifice of the altar." That those on earth are still in communion with the souls in purgatory is the earliest Christian teaching, and that the living aid the dead by their prayers and works of satisfaction is clear from the tradition above alleged. That the Holy Sacrifice was offered for the departed was received Catholic Tradition even in the days of Tertullian and Cyprian, and that the souls of the dead, were aided particularly "while the sacred victim lay upon the altar" is the expression of Cyril of Jerusalem quoted above. Augustine (Serm. clxii, n. 2) says that the "prayers and alms of the faithful, the Holy Sacrifice of the altar aid the faithful departed and move the Lord to deal with them in mercy and kindness, and," he adds, "this is the practice of the universal Church handed down by the Fathers." Whether our works of satisfaction performed on behalf of the dead avail purely out of God's benevolence and mercy, or whether God obliges himself in justice to accept our vicarious atonement, is not a settled question. Francisco Suárez thinks that the acceptance is one of justice, and alleges the common practice of the Church which joins together the living and the dead without any discrimination (De poenit., disp. xlviii, 6, n. 4). So here is your reminder. The Poor Souls need your prayers. With or without a donation or All Souls envelope, place your list of departed family, friends and even, perhaps, enemies in the collection basket next Sunday. Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord... With prayers for your holiness, Rev. Fr. Edwin Palka From the Pastor: The Priest Convocation
Last week I and most of the priests of the diocese spent a few days at the Bethany Center. This annual convocation of priests is not a retreat, where prayer, silence and perhaps spiritual talks would be the focus. No, this is a gathering of priests where “practical application” talks are the main focus. This year we had two men from Dynamic Catholic come to encourage us to make our parishioners “missionary disciples” and “dynamic Catholics” and a couple of other nifty terms. I must say that they were very good at presenting their material and they did give some good pointers and interesting statistics about average Catholics in the pews, but it was really all Catholic Lite. That was their stated purpose, so I don’t say that as a put-down. The focus of their company is on getting the nominal Catholics to become more involved in their parish and, once involved, become better Catholics. It is a bit odd once you see it in writing, I think, but it happens quite often nowadays. A new parishioner, perhaps after just coming into the Church through the RCIA or a fallen-away Catholic who just started coming back to church, is asked to get involved in teaching CCD (or Faith Formation or Religious Education or whatever it is called) because, number one, there is a lack of teachers volunteering to do so and, number two, to make them feel more a part of the parish. It is this second point which was being pushed as priority number one for a dynamic parish. But what it does in practical reality is put those who have little or no knowledge of the Faith in charge of passing on (what exactly?) that little knowledge to our kids. Now, the best way to learn is to teach, so some might do a spectacular job. But more likely, they will just pass on what they know from their previous protestant or secular humanist background or what they think they know after going through a pretty pathetic RCIA program run by, you guessed it, the last convert. These guys were really good at making that sound wonderful! Get the people involved! Sign them up! After a year or two of activity, they will be ready to learn something about the Catholic Faith! Just don’t teach too soon or you will run them off! I exaggerate only a little. Meanwhile, back at the parish, we had the opposite going on. A mission was being preached. Catholic teaching was being imparted. “Hard” sayings were being boldly stated, like a light not hidden under a bushel basket but set out for all to clearly see. Quite a different approach to helping Catholics become more fully, faithfully, and joyfully Catholic! At the convocation, we were given a sneak peek at the message which will come to us in the next couple of years, too, for several priests whose books they highly recommended are coming to give priests retreats for us and to give the presentations at next year’s convocation. Here is a snippet of wisdom which we were given that comes from one of the highly recommended priest’s books. “Music is probably the most controversial topic in the parish. But if you want a dynamic parish, you must have praise and worship music.” I wonder... no, I better not go there! Anyway, they were sincere in their beliefs, they really believe in their message, and, given the state of things in the Church today, perhaps they are correct in thinking that even someone with little to no knowledge of the Faith can still teach the average pew sitter more than they know. But I don’t think so little of you who sit in Epiphany’s pews. That being said, some of the statistics they quoted for us might apply to Epiphany, though I hope not. Approximately 7 percent of the parishioners do any volunteer work at the parish. Approximately 7 percent of the parishioners contribute approximately 80 percent of the total collection. The overlap between those two groups is over 80 percent, so it seems that those who do the work also pay the bills and the rest are freeloaders on both accounts, having a consumerist mentality. “I only pay for things I enjoy and I don’t enjoy Church so I don’t contribute much in the way of money or time or labor. And the weeks I don’t attend, I don’t contribute anything at all.” Now, I have never looked to see who contributes what so I can neither verify nor deny that stat. But it is something worth thinking about. Does it apply to you? By the way, it was about here that we were told to play praise and worship music in order to make people happier, so that they would bring friends to church, so that they would volunteer at church, and so that they would give more in the collection plate. I wonder... no, I still better not go there! But, lest you think that I did not enjoy the convocation, let me assure you that I most certainly did! Getting together with fellow priests in a setting where we ate meals together, watched the Rays win a baseball playoff game, had a few drinks, smoked a few cigars, and told a whole bunch of stories on one another, is a once a year pleasure. Plus, one more priest asked me to teach him how to celebrate the TLM, which I celebrated (privately) daily for your dynamic Catholicism. With prayers for your holiness, Rev. Fr. Edwin Palka From the Pastor: Anders was Instituted as an Acolyte
Last Sunday you understandably might have wondered what was going on at the 10:30 Mass. Anders, our schola director, was participating in the Solemn High Mass, not as the leader of the choir in the rear of the church, but rather front and center as a subdeacon! Lest you continue in your befuddlement, let me explain what happened. Anders is a Catholic of the Latin Rite but belongs to a subset called the Personal Ordinariate of St. Peter. According to the Ordinariate webpage, it “is equivalent to a diocese, created by the Vatican in 2012 for people nurtured in the Anglican tradition who wish to become Catholic.” This includes Anglicans, Episcopalians, and Methodists, and may include members of their families, even if only one of the members was from an Anglican background. Again, quoting from their webpage, “The Ordinariate was created to provide a path for groups of Anglicans to become fully Roman Catholic, while retaining elements of their worship traditions and spiritual heritage in their union with the Catholic Church. The Ordinariate is a key ecumenical venture exemplifying the Second Vatican Council’s vision for Christian unity, in which diverse expressions of one faith are joined together in the Church. The Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter was established in response to repeated and persistent inquiries from Anglicans who over time, have come to identify the Catholic Church as their home. Those joining the Ordinariate have discerned they are truly Catholic in what they believe and desire full membership in the Catholic Church.” I included this quote just in case anyone wonders if they are truly “Catholic”. The answer is, “Yes!” But why would converts from Anglican stock not just convert and become Catholic in the same way that most others do? Well, because they don’t have to! Many of these communities, though they broke away from the Church centuries ago, still held fast to quite a few ancient Catholic traditions with which they were grounded before breaking away. In recent decades, when many Catholics were abandoning all things traditional, these groups retained what Catholics discarded. Coming back to full communion with the Church would mean, for them, casting out many of those traditions which they held so dear and which Catholics throughout most of history held dear, too. Ordinariates helped them avoid having to make a strange choice, which seemed to be “Become Catholic by throwing out Catholic traditions, or remain outside of the Church while embracing Catholic traditions.” I am grossly simplifying things, of course, due to the lack of space to write a “real” history, but in order to make the choice to enter the Church more palatable, Personal Ordinariates were established to welcome them home. And, before you question why they didn’t just embrace the Tridentine Mass, look at the timeline and you will see that the 1962 Mass was not yet made widely available (it still is not available in many places to this day) as the plans for the Personal Ordinariates were being drawn up, debated, and finalized. As it was, though, most “high” Anglicans had kept to a large degree, though embracing the Novus Ordo calendar and the use of vernacular, the older form of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. (Yes, I realize that they did not have valid Holy Orders, yet they still retained much of the liturgical ceremony which they, as a splinter group from Catholicism, had long cherished and never abandoned.) Now that they are back in the Church, they need to find ways to celebrate properly and with great solemnity, the Holy Sacrifice in it’s (although modified as mentioned) glorious form. That requires priests, deacons and subdeacons. But there are no more minor orders, so there are no subdeacons. But Pope Paul VI, when abolishing the minor orders, decreed that instituted acolytes would be able to substitute for subdeacons. (There, I finally came back around to the topic of this article!) So the bishop of the Ordinariate, Bishop Lopes, regularly institutes men primarily to fulfill this role. We, too, who embrace the Extraordinary Form of the Mass, need acolytes/subdeacons. Fortunately, since the men of the Ordinariate are in union with the Catholic Church, and are members of the same Latin Rite, acolytes of one “branch” can perform their ministerial duties in the other “branch” as well. Perhaps you remember that last year I celebrated Mass for the members of the Ordinariate according to their own Missal. I could do that because we are both Catholics of the same Rite, even though there are differences between the Forms. In fact, I dare to say that there are far fewer differences between the Ordinariate Form of the Mass and the Extraordinary Form than there are between the Ordinary Form of the Mass and the Extraordinary Form. Yet all of us can participate in all three Forms according to our state of life. Anyway, Anders was trained and instituted as an acolyte and is now able to fulfill a liturgical role as subdeacon of the Traditional Latin Mass. We are blessed and thankful for his new ministerial role. Congratulations, Anders! With prayers for your holiness, Rev. Fr. Edwin Palka PS If you want to have a little liturgical fun, do an online search to see the arguments as to whether an instituted acolyte more properly fulfills the role of a subdeacon as a subdeacon or as a straw subdeacon, the latter terminology being something most “normal” people have never heard of before! Liturgists and wanna-be liturgists revel in such arcane nomenclature. From the Pastor: Parish Mission Starts Next Sunday!
Next weekend Fr. Sean Kopczynski, MSJB will be here, along with a novice from his religious order, to conduct a parish mission while the priests are away at the annual Diocesan Convocation. As always occurs during the first full week of October, the priests gather with the bishop from Monday afternoon until Thursday afternoon for some talks, for some socializing, for some free time together, and even for a little prayer time as a group. Most parishes will be without Mass for those days. Epiphany will have the regular Traditional Latin Mass schedule in the church (with Fr. Kopczynski celebrating), although the Novus Ordo Masses in the chapel will be canceled Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. NOTE: I am writing about NEXT WEEK, NOT THIS WEEK! Also, while on that subject, starting in October the 8:00 am Novus Ordo Masses in the rectory chapel on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday will be in Vietnamese. Fr. Chien knows that a Vietnamese daily Mass is an essential element in building up his mission community, and if this works out, soon all of the Novus Ordo Masses will be in Vietnamese and the chapel will be packed weekday mornings. (Of course, I am still praying that at some time in the near future all of the Vietnamese Masses will be in the Traditional Rite so that, among other reasons, our two communities will be able to unite, to be Catholic in the fullest sense of the word.) Getting back to the parish mission, now, I want to stress that everyone is welcome to attend everything being offered. Everyone includes those from St. Joseph Vietnamese Mission, those from the Immaculate Conception Haitian Mission, and those from the surrounding parishes, as well as those from Epiphany. As you have seen in the bulletin inserts, heard at Mass announcements, and read on the posters throughout the church and social hall, Father will have catechism classes in the morning and mission talks in the evening. Please mark your calendars and come receive the graces being offered. “Is there anything I can do to help?” I know that this question is on everyone’s lips right now, as you all want to not only participate but also assist. Yes, you can help. Spread the word, number one. Nobody else is having a parish mission right now, so there is no “competition” in this regard. (That is why we were able to get such a great Mission Preacher!) Let your friends and family and coworkers know that they are welcome to come, even if they have never been to Epiphany or to anything Traditional in the Catholic Church. If they want to grow in holiness, this is the place to be next week. The second thing some few of you might be able to assist with is meals. As you know, we don’t have a cook at the rectory. The priests will be gone, leaving our two distinguished guests, who don’t even know what a “Publix” is, let alone know where one might be, to fend for themselves. (Pity them. There are no Publix’s in Kentucky.) If any of you want to cook for them, feel free to do so. I have not been made aware of any food allergies or likes or dislikes, but you might want to ask once they get here. The third way in which you might assist (and, as you can tell, these are not in order of priority!) is to either continue or start to pray for the success of the Mission. Yes, the mission preacher needs a lot of prayer, as the demands on him are great, the spiritual attacks on him are greater still, and the prayers offered on his behalf beforehand are often few. Most people seem to think that the mission preachers are simply imbued with holiness, knowledge, wisdom, and communication skills in such a way that they are immune to the pitfalls of this world or the netherworld. Not so. As I tell you often, if you want a good homily, pray for the preacher. Taking it a step further now, if you want a good Preached Mission, pray for the Mission Preacher! Beseech God that, by His grace and through the hands of the Blessed Mother, Fr. Kopczynski be a Saint (not just that he become one, but pray that he already is one!) for your own benefit as well as for his. Lastly, because the Convocation doesn’t begin until after St. Francis’ Feast Day this year (October 4), I will be offering a Blessing of the Animals that day (this Friday) after the morning Mass, confessions and Benediction are completed, about 10:00 am. So bring in your pets, critters, trapped wildlife, teens, or whatever kind of animal you happen to have hanging out at your house. This is not a long, drawn-out ceremony of any sort, just a short blessing, so don't come at 10:31 expecting anyone to still be there! With prayers for your holiness, Rev. Fr. Edwin Palka From the Pastor: What We Did In Madrid Last week I gave you the prayers and vows of the Consecration which Sister Rachel Maria and the others took as they became perpetually professed Religious. (In case you are just tuning in, so to speak, Sister Rachel Maria is from one of our families, and just took her Perpetual Vows as a Religious Sister with the Home of the Mother. I traveled to Madrid, Spain with my mother to attend the ceremony at their Mother House.) This week I want to let you know what else we did while in Spain. First of all, many of you must have assumed that we were going to be in Spain for a month or more, since you kept insisting that we visit Toledo, Avila, Garabandal, and too many other cities to mention. The reality is that we were only there a few days! We were to fly out of Tampa Wednesday, September 4 shortly before 8 pm. After sitting on the tarmac for a couple of hours, we got off the plane for a couple of hours and then back on for another hour before finally taking off about 1:00 am Thursday morning. Of course, that meant that we missed our connecting flight in Amsterdam, and our new connection for later that day was also then delayed. We didn’t get to Madrid until well after midnight on Friday the 6th, arriving at our rented Airbnb sometime after 1:00 am. Amazingly, the streets and sidewalks of Madrid were packed with people at that hour. It seems that they keep much different hours than we do around here! Shops started opening up around 10 am and many of them closed from noon until 4 pm, although restaurants were open and it seems that 2 pm is a normal lunch time. The restaurants then closed again until 8 or 8:30 pm but few people ate that early. 10 pm is family dinner time. 2:00 am sees everything close up once again. Friday morning we slept in and then headed out to San Gines, where we wanted to indulge in their famous churros and chocolate. But getting there proved harder than expected. I have never used my phone for GPS while walking but have used it extensively while driving. Most of the time it works extremely well on the road. But while walking in Madrid, the little arrow which indicates where I am and what direction I am moving was not pointing in the proper direction. Ever. It wasn’t always pointed in the same wrong direction, either, so it was quite confusing trying to figure out where we were supposed to be heading. None of the streets are parallel. Most are only a few blocks long, ending in a plaza or roundabout with 4 or five other streets intersecting, and the GPS was more confused than I was. Street signs are non existent, though some of the buildings have the street names emblazoned in tiles about ten feet above head level. But not all buildings do, and only one per intersection has it if it is there at all. Since the arrow was never pointing in the right direction, I tried just listening to the phone’s voice commands. “Turn right at Calle de la Misericordia” it would say, but we couldn’t find such a street name and three streets all branched out to the right, so we just guessed as which right was right. We walked a lot without getting anywhere. But we finally found it, and it was worth the trouble. The churros came five or six to a plate, along with a mug of warm, thick, dark, chocolate for dipping. Although some online reviews said that one order was enough for two or three people to share, we each got our own and were darn sure happy to have done it that way! By the time we were done snacking, the church next door, named San Gines, of course, was already closed for the afternoon. We spent the whole afternoon at the Prado museum and only left when they kicked us out at closing time, 8:00 pm. From there we started home but had to find a place for dinner. There were little bars/restaurants everywhere, with most blocks having several. We rather randomly chose one when we looked through the door at one small, crowded bar and noticed a dining room down a hallway. There was a whole room back there with tables which were completely empty since it was way too early for the locals to eat! We got the absolute best meal of our trip there. Fresh shrimp, fresh larger shrimp, fresh even larger shrimp, (each with a different, delightful taste) and fresh langostinos (like a cross between and huge shrimp and a tiny lobster). Then, feeling adventurous, we ordered the fresh grilled octopus. Scrumptious! Saturday and Sunday were set aside to be with the Religious Sisters and the Hernandez family (and the Coughlins, former parishioners now living in California who were there, as well as one of our girls, Valeria Merkt, who, along with Maria Hernandez, is an aspirant with the Sisters). Monday and Tuesday were filled with more churros and chocolate, more shrimp, prawns, langostinos, fish, octopus, clams, mussels, barnacles (they taste like clams), and crabs, and visits to many beautiful churches. We didn’t have time to see (and eat) everything in Madrid, let alone travel to other cities! Wednesday morning we headed back to the airport to come home. Mom took photos everywhere we went and she is more than happy to “show and tell” if you ask! With prayers for your holiness, Rev. Fr. Edwin Palka   I didn't think to take the photo until we were already well into this meal, as seen by the shrimp heads on mom's extra plate near her.From the Pastor: Sister Rachel Maria Sends Her Love!
Sister Rachel Maria of the Virginal Heart of Mary professed Solemn Perpetual Vows as a Servant Sister of the Home of the Mother! She was absolutely thrilled that my mother and I made the trip, that you all helped her family make the trip, that the ceremony and Mass were going to be livecast in our social hall, that the... Well, let me just say that she was thrilled with everything and everyone! There were no words to really express what she was going through but she kept saying “thanks” and “I’m sorry”. The “thanks” was for all that you have done back here for her and her family. The “I’m sorry” was for not being able to spend much time with anyone, including her own family, and not being able to thank everyone in person or enough. She was busy. She needn’t have apologized, as her frenzied, bubbly, joyful, busyness was expected by everyone but her! Eleven Sisters and one Brother made their professions in the same ceremony. They were asked by the Bishop (I will use only the feminine, though the questions were also asked, obviously, to the Brother in the masculine), “Dear Sisters: What do you ask of God and of His Holy Church?” Their answer was, “To serve the Lord in the Servant Sisters of the Home of the Mother all the days of my life.” The Bishop asked more questions. “Dear Sisters: Through baptism you have died to sin and are consecrated to the Lord. Do you now wish to consecrate yourselves more intimately to God through the perpetual profession in the Servant Sisters of the Home of the Mother?” Each replied, “Yes, I do so wish.” Bishop: “Do you wish, by the grace of God, to faithfully observe perfect chastity, obedience, and poverty, thus imitating Jesus Christ and His Mother, the Virgin Mary?” Sisters: “Yes, I do so wish.” Bishop: “Do you wish to strive to obtain perfect charity with God and with your neighbor, with firmness and constancy, faithfully following the Gospel and observing your statutes?” Sisters: “Yes, I do so wish.” Bishop: “Do you wish to defend the Eucharist and the Honor of Our Mother, especially in the privilege of her virginity, in and with your life?” Sisters: “Yes, I do so wish.” Bishop: Do you wish, guided by the Holy Spirit, to generously spend your entire life at the service of the people of God, especially of the youth?” Sisters: “Yes, I do so wish.” We prayed that God would give them the graces necessary to confirm them in their holy resolutions. Strengthened by the Litany of Saints, they made their vows, which reflect the above-asked questions, ending with, “I surrender myself to You, Lord, with all that I am and all that I have. I consecrate myself to You with all that I may ever be and may ever have. Such as I am, I give myself to You now and forever, as a Servant Sister of the Home of the Mother in order to live with my Sisters in community of life, work, prayer, and love, making of our house a true Home of Nazareth, in full conformity with the Constitutional norms, which we have voluntarily chosen.” Finally, the Bishop gave them a Solemn Blessing and Consecration. “Oh God, source and origin of all holiness, You have so loved men that You have made them participants in Your divinity and You have not permitted that Your plans of love be destroyed by the sin of Adam or changed by the offenses of the world. Already at the beginning of time, You gave us an example of innocent life in Abel. You inspired holy men and women, full of every virtue, to arise among the Hebrew people, among which the Daughter of Zion, the most Blessed Virgin Mary, stands out, in whose virginal womb Your Word, Jesus Christ Our Lord, became incarnate. He is the image of the holiness desired by You. He became poor to enrich us; He became a Servant to restore our freedom. By His paschal mystery and with ineffable love, He redeemed and sanctified His Church, which was promised the gifts of the Spirit. Under the inspiration of the Paraclete, Lord, You have called innumerable sons and daughters of Yours to follow Christ so that by abandoning the things of this world and joined by the bond of love, they may unite themselves to You with a fervent spirit and be at the service of all their brethren. Lord, look upon these Your children, whom You have called in Your providence, and pour forth upon them the Holy Spirit, so that by Your aid and full of joy, they may faithfully fulfill what they have promised today. May they attentively meditate and faithfully follow the examples of the Divine Teacher. May they abound in chastity, joyful poverty, and generous obedience. May they please You with their humility, serve Your with a docile heart, and love You with fervent charity. May they be patient in tribulation, firm in faith, joyful in hope, and active in love. May their life build up the Church, promote the salvation of the world, and be a clear sign of the heavenly goods. Lord, Heavenly Father, may You be the guide and support of Your children, and when they reach the judgment of Your Son, may You be their recompense and reward so that they may rejoice in having offered themselves in religious life. Thus strengthened in Your love, may they rejoice in the company of the Saints, with whom they will praise You without end. We ask this through Christ, Our Lord. Amen.” We love you, Sister! Ora pro nobis! With prayers for your holiness, Rev. Fr. Edwin Palka From the Pastor: Many Thanks!
The first part of this article is written by someone near and dear to me and to you, mom. Some are afraid of getting old. Some are happy to get old (5 ½). Some ignore getting old. Some embrace getting old. As for me, I am the mother of “the priest”. Our Happy Holy Pastor who let everyone know I am now 80. So the whole Epiphany family helped me celebrate. So many of you took the time to wish me a happy birthday. Some were able to come to breakfast even though it was raining hard. Many more were able to come to The 3rd Wednesday of the month Covered Dish that celebrated everyone who had an August birthday. So many showed up we filled the social hall. Young and old, family groups and singles. It was like a family reunion without the Aunt Irma’s everyone hoped wouldn’t come. I received so many cards with prayers, Mass or rosary or other prayers said for me. Still others gave me thoughtful gifts and told me why they couldn’t resist getting me something. Some reminded me of how we met years ago before Epiphany was our Church home. I thank you all for making my 80th birthday so special. Words cannot express how I feel about all of you. I hope I will always live up to the title of Mom that many of you call me. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! God bless you all. Can you imagine what it will be like when our Epiphany Family meets in Heaven? Mary Queen of Heaven and Earth Pray for us. Love ya, Carole “Mom” Palka Along with those thanks, I also have a few words of thanks from Kevin and Cheryl Hernandez and family. They are so appreciative of all the support they have received from you as one of their daughters makes her Perpetual Vows as a Religious Sister with the Home of the Mother. Your prayers have been given in abundance and you have given support in other ways as well. In a perfect world, money wouldn’t be an issue, yet it is when trying to get a large family to fly all the way to Spain for such an important ceremony. You all helped them by getting loaves of bread and other foods that were baked by the family with love and prayers. You slipped them cards with donations, both in person and anonymously. Your generosity is beyond amazing. 10 members of the Hernandez family will be able to make the trip and none will be left behind due to lack of funds! With that in mind, please remember to pray for Sister Rachel Maria of the Virginal Heart of Mary on Sunday, September 8 at noon local time, when she will make her final profession at the Convento de las Bernarda in Alcala de Henares, Spain. To help you pray for her, we are hoping to have it live-streamed in the parish social hall immediately following the 10:30 Mass, so plan to stay and watch next week! If you won’t be there, you may still be able to follow from a home computer or even from your phone wherever you may be (unless you are driving!). A link can be found on the Epiphany website. As I write this, hurricane Dorian is threating Florida and the airlines have re-routed the Hernandez’ flights. They were going to drive to Miami and fly out of there on Monday, September 2 but have now been issued new tickets out of Tampa (God is good!) without any extra charge. Plus, there return flight was to end in Miami where they were going to park the van and drive home but since the van won’t be there, the airline is flying them back to Tampa as well, again with no extra cost to them! Their whole reason for flying out of Miami even though it was inconvenient was that there was a significant savings on each ticket. Now they get the savings and the convenience, and certainly that is due to your prayers for them! Muchas Gracias! You also know that my mom and I are flying out of Tampa on Wednesday (it was not worth it for just two of us to drive to Miami!) to be there for the ceremony. I have been praying the Mass prayers Ad repellendas tempestates (To Avert Storms) so we shouldn’t have any problems, either. But keep praying anyway! These Mass prayers can be found as number 21 on page 1351 of the Angelus Press Missal. The Collect is: A domo tua, quǽsumus Dómine, spiritáles nequítiæ repellántur: et aëriárum discédat malígnitas tempestátum. Per Dóminum nostrum... (We beseech Thee, O Lord, that all spiritual wickedness may be driven away from Thy house, and that the fury of the storms may pass away. Through our Lord...) The Secret is: Offérimus tibi, Dómine, laudes et múnera, pro concéssis benefíciis grátias referéntes, et pro concedéndis semper supplíciter deprecántes. Per Dóminum... (O Lord, we offer up to Thee praises and gifts, giving thanks for the blessings bestowed, and ever with humility praying that more may be granted. Through our Lord...) And the Post Communion prayer is: Omnípotens sempitérne Deus, qui nos et castigándo sanas et ignoscéndo consérvas: præsta supplícibus tuis; ut et tranquillitátibus hujus optátæ consolatiónis lætémur, et dono tuæ pietátis semper utámur. Per Dóminum... (Almighty, everlasting God, Who by chastising healest and by forgiving dost preserve, grant that we who humbly pray to Thee, may rejoice in the peace and consolation which we desire and ever enjoy the gift of Thy mercy. Through our Lord...). With prayers for your holiness, Rev. Fr. Edwin Palka From the Pastor: The Eucharist Really Is Jesus
A very prominent Jesuit priest, who used to be the editor-in-chief of the Jesuit’s atrocious weekly magazine, America, decided to weigh in on the recent Pew Research poll, which showed that 69% of self-reported Catholics think that the Eucharist is simply a symbol. Fr. Thomas Reese, SJ, wrote an article in the National Catholic Reporter, a supposedly-Catholic newspaper which is so bad that it makes America look Catholic, which seemed to make the Pew poll’s reported 1/3 of Catholics who actually believe what the Church teaches regarding the Eucharist out to be the ones who got it wrong! Here is just one of many problems with his presentation. “I personally find the theology of transubstantiation unintelligible…” What this poor priest doesn’t get is that it doesn’t matter one whit what he finds unintelligible or what he finds completely within his mental capacity to grasp. What matters is what is true. And Holy Mother Church has taught the truth on this subject, which should be enough for him to accept even what he doesn’t comprehend. Here are some teachings from the Council of Trent on the Eucharist. See how many “anathemas” Fr. Reese and oh, so many other Catholic clergy and laity would rack up if anyone were keeping count. Oh, wait, a very important Somebody is keeping count. ON THE MOST HOLY SACRAMENT OF THE EUCHARIST CANON I.-If any one denieth, that, in the sacrament of the most holy Eucharist, are contained truly, really, and substantially, the body and blood together with the soul and divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ, and consequently the whole Christ; but saith that He is only therein as in a sign, or in figure, or virtue; let him be anathema. CANON II.-If any one saith, that, in the sacred and holy sacrament of the Eucharist, the substance of the bread and wine remains conjointly with the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, and denieth that wonderful and singular conversion of the whole substance of the bread into the Body, and of the whole substance of the wine into the Blood-the species Only of the bread and wine remaining-which conversion indeed the Catholic Church most aptly calls Transubstantiation; let him be anathema. CANON III.-If any one denieth, that, in the venerable sacrament of the Eucharist, the whole Christ is contained under each species, and under every part of each species, when separated; let him be anathema. CANON IV.-If any one saith, that, after the consecration is completed, the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ are not in the admirable sacrament of the Eucharist, but (are there) only during the use, whilst it is being taken, and not either before or after; and that, in the hosts, or consecrated particles, which are reserved or which remain after communion, the true Body of the Lord remaineth not; let him be anathema. CANON V.-If any one saith, either that the principal fruit of the most holy Eucharist is the remission of sins, or, that other effects do not result therefrom; let him be anathema. CANON VI.-If any one saith, that, in the holy sacrament of the Eucharist, Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, is not to be adored with the worship, even external of latria; and is, consequently, neither to be venerated with a special festive solemnity, nor to be solemnly borne about in processions, according to the laudable and universal rite and custom of holy church; or, is not to be proposed publicly to the people to be adored, and that the adorers thereof are idolators; let him be anathema. CANON VII.-If any one saith, that it is not lawful for the sacred Eucharist to be reserved in the sacrarium, but that, immediately after consecration, it must necessarily be distributed amongst those present; or, that it is not lawful that it be carried with honour to the sick; let him be anathema. CANON VIII.-lf any one saith, that Christ, given in the Eucharist, is eaten spiritually only, and not also sacramentally and really; let him be anathema. CANON IX.-If any one denieth, that all and each of Christ's faithful of both sexes are bound, when they have attained to years of discretion, to communicate every year, at least at Easter, in accordance with the precept of holy Mother Church; let him be anathema. CANON X.-If any one saith, that it is not lawful for the celebrating priest to communicate himself; let him be anathema. CANON XI.-lf any one saith, that faith alone is a sufficient preparation for receiving the sacrament of the most holy Eucharist; let him be anathema. And for fear lest so great a sacrament may be received unworthily, and so unto death and condemnation, this holy Synod ordains and declares, that sacramental confession, when a confessor may be had, is of necessity to be made beforehand, by those whose conscience is burthened with mortal sin, how contrite even soever they may think themselves. But if any one shall presume to teach, preach, or obstinately to assert, or even in public disputation to defend the contrary, he shall be thereupon excommunicated. With prayers for your holiness, Rev. Fr. Edwin Palka |
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