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From the Pastor: Addressing the Pope
Last week I asked the people at the 7:30 Mass to write letters in a way similar to what was done when the parishioners wrote letters of support to Bishop Parkes. Similarly, mind you, not exactly the same way, for the letters to our Bishop were letters of support when he mistakenly thought that we didn’t support him. This week, through this bulletin article, I am asking the people at the other Masses to also take pen in hand and put it to paper. The Bishop to whom these new letters should be addressed resides in Rome. Unlike Bishop Parkes, Francis doesn’t see the value of allowing anyone, not just us at this parish, to celebrate or attend Mass in the Traditional Latin form. For this reason, I don’t ask you to send him letters of support, for he may think you support his desire to take that away from us. But I do ask you to send a letter explaining to him how the Traditional Latin Mass has changed your life for the better. Please don’t make up stories or even embellish your own personal experience with the Mass. Just write a nice letter telling him what it has done for your Catholic faith, for your understanding of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, how it has brought your family more deeply into the family of the Church, or any other way that it has opened your eyes to the Glory of God as expressed in Traditional liturgy. Let me here repeat what I said last week about writing such letters. I don’t know if any of them will get through to him for I don’t know what system is in place to allow some things to pass through and some to be blocked. There must be a system, though, for he cannot possibly read every piece of mail that gets sent to him. But I do know that if any of the “mail sorters” are anti-TLM and they see a nasty, cruel, belligerent letter coming in among hundreds of heartwarming and thoughtfully loving letters, that one horrible letter will be the one that gets placed squarely in the front and center of the desk. Don’t write such a letter! Don’t complain about anything. Don’t whine about anything. Don’t berate anyone. Just say something about how the TLM has helped you to become more holy and loving, more Catholic, and more likely to become a Saint. If even one such a letter gets through it has the possibility of changing his heart. It should go without saying that I am asking you to pray as you write it, pray as you send it, and prayerfully ask your guardian angel to help ward off any demons who wish to misdirect your letter or have it misinterpreted. Maybe the person soring mail will be a friend of Tradition and two hundred or more letters written from this one parish, from mature ladies and teenage girls, from little boys and elderly men, from the pastor and from the newbie who just wandered in for the first time, could all wind up in Francis’ hands. It won’t happen if you don’t send in a letter and you cannot send one in if you don’t write it. By the time these letters get to the Vatican and get processed, we will be down to approximately one year of life left in the parish with a possibility of an extension of this “generous” two-year exemption granted us before we have to cease doing the very thing that brought life back to the parish in 2015. Why not put personal stories out there to be seen by the one man who wields the power? Of course, most people have no idea how to address the letter or the envelope, so here is the proper protocol: The salutation on the letter should be “Your Holiness” or “Most Holy Father”. The complimentary closing should be “Respectfully yours.” The envelope should be addressed to: His Holiness Pope Francis 00120 Vatican City Europe It seems that thousands of packages, letters, and messages get delivered there each day. The chances of our letters getting through seem astronomically slim. Yet I believe that this is a worthwhile endeavor. After all, it is worth it if each of us has to express in writing just how much we have been changed for the better since discovering the Traditional Latin Mass. If we can explain it to Francis, we will better be able to explain it to our skeptical neighbors and friends. It is worth it for those sorting the Vatican mail, too, for certainly they will see their fair share of complaints and gripes, so seeing good news will bring them welcome relief. Finally, to use an image that is well-known to all of us, both young and old, as the Grinch’s heart grew and he fully embraced Christmas, perhaps this prayerful venture will have the same effect on Francis’ heart and he will fully embrace Traditional Catholicism. After all, celebrating the sacraments in their Traditional form, especially the Mass, has given me insights into the priesthood which I never knew I lacked. I am just an insignificant parish priest. I hear stories all the time about how individuals and families have loved God and His Church more fully after embracing the TLM, sometimes after long battles of kicking against the goad! Wouldn’t it be lovely to see the same result in Rome? Get out your best paper, ink, crayons, or whatever writing instruments you own, and get those letters out! With prayers for your holiness, Rev. Fr. Edwin Palka From the Pastor: Thank You, God, For Good Timing!
Last weekend was quite different than I had expected, all because of a little issue with (or, rather, without) water. It all started sometime Friday afternoon. We had water shortly after noon when I was washing my lunch dishes. But sometime later that afternoon Fr. Dorvil announced that there was no water coming out of the kitchen faucet. A quick check showed that the entire rectory was without water. I walked to the school. No water there. I checked the church. Again, no water. We don’t know when it went out but we had the JMJ homeschool group here until at least two o’clock and never heard any complaints from them so we assume it was sometime after they left. As I walked back out of the church I heard the sound of cars out front driving through water, which would have been a normal noise had it been raining, but such was not the case. I walked out there to see water gushing out from under the sidewalk outside of our fence. The water was coming from both sides of the slab of concrete with enough force that it was actually pushed up higher than the other adjoining sections and running out onto Hanna Avenue down toward the train tracks. I quickly went back to the rectory and called the water department to report a water main break. The woman on the other end of the phone line said that since it was gushing from under the city sidewalk next to the street, she would put it in as an emergency and a repair truck would be there shortly. A couple of hours later the city repairman got there and, after a long search, finally found the water shutoff valve and meter box under the water in the small strip between the sidewalk and the street. He siphoned the water out of the newly made holes and dug the mud out to reveal the water pipe. Then he gave me the bad news. Even though the broken pipe was obviously outside of our property boundaries, because it was on our side of the meter box, it was our problem to deal with, not the city’s. He was sympathetic to our predicament as he had been watching all of the cars coming in to drop off teens for our youth group meeting. When he heard that our weekend schedule included Saturday morning Mass, Adult Catechism Class, baptisms and another evening Mass, and then another 800 or more people coming in for Sunday Masses and activities, he called his supervisor and asked him to come and see if they could do anything for us. The supervisor did come by a while later but he answer was, “Sorry, but we can’t help you. You’ll have to call your own plumber” I put in a call and left a message with Dyser Plumbing, the best plumbing company I have had the pleasure of dealing with as a priest. Then I sent out a text message and email via Flocknote warning people that we had no water anywhere on campus. I canceled the class but not the Masses and left the baptisms up to the parents. Mr. Dyser called back and apologized that he had allowed his “extra” plumbers to take some vacation time after a long, hard holiday season and had nobody to send. (Mr. Dyser also called again Sunday morning apologizing for “letting us down” and offering to make it up to us. He really is a great man and certainly didn’t let us down by taking care of his employees.) By Saturday morning parishioners were in motion doing things that needed to be done. We had people calling plumbers everywhere from Dade City to Sun City Center, yet none could be found to come to our assistance. Several people managed to find porta-potty companies that could deliver a couple on short notice so that we would at least have minimal toilet facilities before the Vigil Mass began. A plumber (Emory of Emory M. Garland Plumbing, who turned out to be another delightful Christian plumber willing to go the extra mile to get our water running again before Sunday “services”) was finally found by one of our contractors, who also came out with one of his men to cut through the sidewalk to get to the pipe. It turns out that the sidewalk was a fresh slab of concrete put down by the city after they changed the connection of our water pipes to a new meter and a new connection to their water main when they were doing work on the system while putting in the new City Center across the street. It was their newly installed pipe that snapped. We will see if they can reimburse us for our expenses since it seems they installed that section of pipe improperly. Meanwhile, another parishioner brought about twenty five-gallon buckets filled with water so that we could flush toilets if needed on Sunday. The Knights of Columbus, without their knowledge, were going to refill the buckets from Epiphany Arms next door as needed. Other parishioners offered meals for the priests if needed. The coffee and donut people had to cancel our donut order because the deadline came before the plumber did. The website got updates on the progress, as did our farcebook page and flocknote. More people did more things than I could have ever imagined. Thank you all. Finally, about 5:45 am Sunday morning, I turned on the water, flushed out the pipes, and everything held together! But that is not why I titled this column “Thank You, God, For Good Timing!” Just imagine what would have happened if the pipe burst just one week earlier! With prayers for your holiness, Rev. Fr. Edwin Palka From the Pastor: Prayers and Thanks
Later this week many members of our Youth Group, along with their chaperones and fearless leader Jamiee, will be making the trek to the March for Life. Please keep them all in your prayers as they spend days on end praying for an end to abortion. When I ask for prayers for them, specifically I am asking for prayers against the demonic forces they will be encountering. Fortunately for them, they will be in a huge group of (mostly) holy people, each of whose guardian angel will be doing much to protect them. But they will also be in the midst of a huge swarm of demons who are hell-bent on keeping our collective USA mindset securely on “practical matters” of this world and completely ignoring the immorality of both the acts leading to “unplanned” pregnancy and the “termination” (a politically correct word if there ever was one) of said pregnancy. And, since child sacrifice, which is what abortion is at its core, is pleasing to Satan, he will send legions of demons, those already surrounding our spineless pro-abort politicians and those who vote for them, as well as many others normally on other “assignments.” Imagine, if you will, the demons brought with carloads of protesters who try to intimidate the pro-life Youth, those accompanying the security personnel waiting anxiously to throw pro-life Youth out of the Smithsonian and other government buildings, those accompanying the pro-abort media (as if there are any other kind) and even those tempting the bishops to denounce their own children when demonic false accusations arise against them, all of which have happened in recent years. Without the good angels accompanying the Youth and adults, without the prayers of the people back home in parishes, without the priests and religious at the March for Life and back home, the children would have no chance of surviving with their souls intact. But with all of the Good, they will not only survive but thrive. They will return more convinced than ever of the need for their own, not just others’, purity and virtue. They will become more and more convinced that demons are real, that God and angels are real, and that the Catholic Church is the only means of salvation. Although they will also realize that it can take years, nay, even decades of prayer and action before enough hearts are converted to make a large difference in the overall mindset of abortion as a “good” or a “necessary evil”, they will also realize that individuals can be converted, can repent, can mourn past sins, and can be reconciled with God just by the seemingly non-productive witness given by the group and by the individuals within the group. Pray for their holiness! Pray for their safety in body and soul! Pray for those they will touch spiritually by their willingness to give this small part of their lives to God. While they are on their March, a group of our Troops of St. George will also be on a trip, albeit one somewhat closer to home. They will be on a campout at Lithia Springs. They can use your prayers as well, so don’t neglect to include them as you pray for the Youth Group. On their campouts, the boys learn a lot about discipline and taking responsibility for their actions and for the well-being of the group. By learning such things as advanced planning, setting up camp, cooking, and many other “manly” activities, they will also grow in their pro-life Catholicism. For when they learn what a real Catholic man is expected to do, how he is to act, how he is to treat others, how he is to pray always and everywhere, these boys will grow in virtues that are rarely talked about, not often seen in family or societal life anymore, and certainly not held in high esteem by a large segment of society. They will, of course, by learning how God expects males to think, act, and believe, then, in turn, treat females as God expects boys to treat girls, men to treat women, and husbands to treat wives. The virtues of chastity and sobriety, of reverence and gentlemanliness, of courage and fortitude will be a natural part of their lives. They will not see the opposite sex (or same sex) as play toys, but will rather see the joy of a life-time commitment to protecting and caring for a wife who will be a mother (after a sacramental marriage, not before) to their children, or how glorious it is to be a Father or Brother in the religious life. They will uphold Traditional Catholic morality rather than despise it or ignore it or wish it would change. And, yes, these camping trips, combined with everything else they learn in this great organization, will set them on the path of holiness or, more accurately, keep them on it. My thanks go out to those who take the time and put in the energy needed to help parents raise holy children by running the Youth Group, Troops of St. George, and all of the other great organizations we have available at Epiphany. And, lest I neglect it, many thanks also go out to those who toiled so much to make our last weekend’s Epiphany Celebration such a wonderful occasion. Our Parish Feast Day brought so many blessings to us, those that we recognized and those that were just “infused” within us, due to the angels and Saints in Heaven watching over us and interceeding on our behalf as well as those saints-in-the-making who did the grunt work here on Earth. Thank you all and keep the prayers rising to Heaven! With prayers for your holiness, Rev. Fr. Edwin Palka From the Pastor: Is Epiphany January 6 or 7? Yes!
The Church keeps two main liturgical calendars, one for the Novus Ordo and one for the Traditional Latin Mass. There are also other, lesser known, liturgical calendars followed by other Catholic Rites, and there are some variations within the calendars of various Religious Orders, but explaining all of those would be beyond the scope of this article. Since this is Epiphany of Our Lord Parish and we follow both calendars, I want to explain a little about the date upon which Epiphany falls, since it is one of the many times when the two calendars are not unified. In the 1962 calendar, Epiphany is always celebrated on January 6. This is the 12th day after Christmas. The Novus Ordo calendar, on the other hand, has transferred Epiphany to the following Sunday, regardless of the date. This year, the Solemnity of The Epiphany of the Lord on the Novus Ordo (1970) calendar falls on Sunday, January 7. So our strange calendar situation means that we will celebrate Epiphany on Saturday, January 6 at the TLM and again on Sunday, January 7 in the NOM. “But Father!” you might be thinking, “That’s not right! I read this article during the NOM on Saturday, January 6 and the priest was celebrating the Solemnity of The Epiphany of the Lord. Now I am re-reading it during the Sunday morning TLM on January 7 and the priest is celebrating the Mass of The Epiphany of the Lord today! I think you must have transposed the dates when you were explaining the differences in the calendars.” While I can easily see myself doing such a thing, in this particular case I got it right. I have even checked and rechecked just to be sure since it would be a horrible time to incorrectly write that I am correct even while acknowledging that the people are experiencing Masses being celebrated on the dates that I stated are not the proper dates for their particular calendar. Ohhh, my head is spinning. Yes, the NOM calendar says that January 7, not the 6th, is Epiphany, yet we celebrated it on January 6th anyway and we did so while following the calendar correctly. And, yes, the TLM calendar puts Epiphany on January 6, yet we, following that calendar properly, too, celebrated it on January 7. How now, brown cow? It turns out that there are quirks in both calendars. In the NOM calendar, although Sunday, January 7, is the date for Epiphany, the Vigil Mass, which, in this case was celebrated at 5:00 pm Saturday, January 6, is considered the anticipated Sunday Mass. So the Saturday evening Mass is the same as the Sunday Mass, hence, it was the Mass of The Epiphany of the Lord. If we had a NOM on Sunday, too, we would have celebrated the same Mass both days. As for the TLM, we celebrated it, as the calendar tells us to do, on Saturday, January 6 at the morning Mass. The quirk to this calendar is that it allows parishes to celebrate, as an external solemnity, the parish patronal feast day (Epiphany, for us) on either the preceding or following Sunday in addition to celebrating it on the proper date, if the pastor considers it to be beneficial to the people. I believe it to be beneficial, so we celebrated the same Mass on both days, even though it meant that the feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph got bumped from the calendar. Whew! The “backward dates” were correct! Now that we have that straightened out, let me remind you that there was a special exorcism and blessing of salt and water during the evening of January 5. I only blessed several hundred gallons of the Epiphany Holy Water; there may be some left for you to take home if you missed that ceremony. There certainly will be plenty of specially blessed Epiphany chalk for you to take home to mark the lintels of your doors with the traditional Epiphany markings. This year it is written as 20 + C + M + B + 24, which is the current year, 2024, with crosses and the initials of the Three Kings (Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar) between the first two digits and the last two digits. The CMB also stands for “Christus mansionem benedicat,” or “May Christ bless the house.” The Roman Ritual book of blessings allowed on Epiphany, along with the chalk, blessing of gold, incense, myrrh, and houses. We use frankincense and sometimes myrrh at the high Mass, so I am not giving it out, as I am sure none of you would wish to take anything home that should more properly give honor to Our Lord. And I forgot to purchase a thousand extra gold bars to bless and pass out to everyone. Maybe next year. Finally, everybody has different needs and desires for the size and type of house they want to live in, so I decided not to purchase one for each member of the congregation this year, so as to avoid the great arguments over “who gets what house” that erupted last year when I tried it for the first time. But I did manage to bless each house that you brought in for the blessing. If you missed doing so this year, it is not too soon to start making plans for next year! Happy Octave of Epiphany! With prayers for your holiness, Rev. Fr. Edwin Palka |
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