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From the Pastor: Where’s Father Emmanuel?
Those of you who attended the TLM at St. Anthony back in the day, as well as those who were at Epiphany when the TLM first started here in August of 2015 will most likely remember Fr. Emmanuel Ndecihiro. He was from the diocese of Dodoma in Tanzania and came to the States to study advanced Mathematics at St. Leo University. I offered him a room at St. Anthony’s rectory and we became close friends over the years. He also stayed at Epiphany for a while before he finally had to return to his home diocese, where he has since been in charge of several parishes, missions, and schools. He has been trying to make it back here for a short break from all that has been heaped upon him and was expecting to arrive here this week. I planned on running this article (from long ago at St. Anthony) for his first Sunday back, both as a memory for him to recall and because I didn’t expect to have much time to write because we needed to do a lot of catching up. Unfortunately, he is not yet able to come, but here is an old story of his first Thanksgiving. Enjoy! Fr. Emmanuel’ 1st Thanksgiving Several weeks ago Father Emmanuel asked me what “Thanksgiving” is. I explained to him about the history of the celebration and that, in practice, it is the most religious of all secular holidays we celebrate. We give thanks to God quite openly on this day, when we seem to be almost apologetic for mentioning God at Christmas or Easter. Then I told him about the great feast he could expect at a typical Thanksgiving meal. After spending the day (following morning Mass, of course) watching football games, drinking wine, beer or soda, snacking on chips, salsa, veggies, fruits and cheese, the real food would come. Turkey and ham, baked potatoes, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, squash, rolls, cranberry sauce, stuffing, salad, green beans and carrots. His eyes were wide as I listed all of the food. (In his limited vocabulary he didn’t understand “turkey” or ‘ham” until seeing photos on the web.) But I hadn’t even gotten to the dessert. Apple pie, pumpkin pie and pecan pie, all topped with ice cream and whipped cream. “Wow! How do you eat that much?” he wondered in amazement. We simply loosen our belts a notch or two and stuff ourselves more than anyone could possibly imagine. Father’s response was to tell me of feasts in his home village. But there they have a saying that goes something like this: “You can only eat until your stomach touches your ribs.” Boy, would I be in trouble! My stomach passed by my ribs many years ago and does not seem to have any intention of ever going back into its proper place again. Anyway, last Thursday was Father’s first Thanksgiving and he got to celebrate it with my family. You know what craziness is when you read about my family get togethers, especially when I write about them before they occur. This year my brother-in-law took his boys out hunting before Thanksgiving and shot a wild hog for the main course instead of the traditional ham and turkey. Father Emmanuel, who grew up hunting for most of his meals back home, thought this was the best way to ensure good, fresh meat and was excited when he saw the large boar they got. It made him a little homesick but I didn’t know what he was going to do to alleviate that down and out feeling. Without telling anyone, he made a blowgun and snare and went hunting himself, as we found out Thanksgiving afternoon. We were roasting the pig in a large pit after burning logs down to hot ash and at one point Father Emmanuel placed his surprise catch in with it when nobody was looking. Not realizing there were hunting seasons and regulations, he had gotten up early in the morning and caught a wild turkey. He cleaned it and seasoned it and placed it into the firepit and waited with great excitement for our reaction when we would finally eat. Fast forward a couple of hours and dinner was ready. All the fixin’s were on the table, the first couple of football games were over and everyone was called in to eat. The boys had retrieved their hog and sliced it up nicely but when they did, they noticed a foul odor that they couldn’t quite place or explain. Meanwhile, Father Emmanuel had stealthily removed his turkey from the pit and kept it off to the side to spring on us once we were all gathered at the table. Once we said grace he asked us to wait and he brought in his surprise. It was a beautiful bird, with golden brown skin looking like something from a Normal Rockwell painting. But it was also the source of the obnoxious odor. As we would find out in just a little while the odor was so pungent that it permeated even the boar it was cooked with and made it inedible. The aroma was not from the spices he used. And the bird was, indeed, very fresh, yet it still smelled very strongly of what we now recognized as week old road kill. Father learned a very valuable lesson on his first Thanksgiving Day. There is a big difference between a turkey and a turkey buzzard. At least we still had vegetables to eat. With prayers for your holiness, Fr. Edwin Palka From the Pastor: A New Look!
This week the church will be in a bit of turmoil but for a very good reason. The morning Masses will be held in the social hall and Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament will be moved to the rectory chapel. Confessions will probably be heard there as well. We shall see as it all plays out. We have a Nuptial Mass scheduled for Friday afternoon, so the church will have to be put back in order before the wedding and the bride and groom will be the first to experience the new look. Many of you already have a general idea of what the wall behind the altar will look like when we are done, for we have had a rough mock-up of it hanging in the office for several months now, plus some rough sketches of the artwork in the sacristy for anyone interested enough to take a peek at. But most of you will probably not be aware of what has been in the works for quite some time. A world-renowned artist, who just happens to attend Mass at Epiphany, has offered to loan us a crucifixion scene and two large angels as a triptych to be displayed as long as we are allowed to celebrate the TLM here. The style is along the lines of that of the great 15th-century Dominican Friar and artist, Fra Angelico. I think you will be quite pleased with it. We will have to do some more work later to fully incorporate it into the church, but this week at least the first stage will be completed. While we are working to bring beauty to the church, giving even more glory to God and edification to His people, such is not the case in all parts of the Church. The Vatican has announced a new “mascot” for the Church’s 2025 Jubilee Year. “Luce” has blue hair, is dressed in a yellow raincoat and hat with green galoshes splattered with brown mud, wears a rainbow rosary around his/her/its neck, and carries a witch's stang-like walking stick. Her (how are we to know what gender this thing has? Do they expect us to all be biologists?) eyes have pupils shaped like scallop shells (the symbol of those who have completed a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela). She has several friends, Fe, Xin, and Sky (all of which sound like trans pronouns), and a dog named Santino (“little Saint”). This/these figures are the work of an “artist” whose company’s anime-inspired toys include plenty of “pride” toys and (ahem) “adult” toys in the form of child toys. It is presumed that Rupnik was unavailable for the job. I have two serious questions for those who dreamed up this mascot idea. 1) If you really think that a toy pilgrim is going to evangelize the young, couldn’t you have at least found an artist who is not already known for scandalous “works of art”? 2) Or was scandal, rather than Faith, the whole “hidden” idea behind your choice? Going further into things that don’t glorify God or edify His people, this week (as I write this article, not as you read it) the Bishops of the United States are gathered for their Fall meeting. What is on their agenda? I do not know. But something reportedly not on their agenda ought to be a priority for them: Catholic hospitals have been performing mutilations on children in the name of “trans therapy.” How many? According to the National Catholic Register, “As the Register reported last month, on Oct. 8 a medical watchdog organization called Do No Harm released a database finding that about 150 Catholic hospitals in the United States provided “pediatric sex-change services” between 2019 and 2023, including 33 Catholic hospitals that performed so-called gender-reassignment surgeries on minors... More than 520 minors received treatments in Catholic hospitals in about 40 states during that five-year period, according to the data. More than 150 had surgeries to alter their appearances to resemble the opposite sex, while more than 380 children were given puberty blockers or hormone therapies.” Make no mistake about this, not a bit of this gives glory to the One True God but rather makes a mockery of Him. None of this actually edifies His people, even those mentally ill enough to claim that the children benefit from doctors “correcting” God’s “mistakes.” Every parent, doctor, nurse, and other “official” involved in these actions should be judged in this world, not just in the next. And the Bishops (who have all been made aware of the above-mentioned report), for the sake of their own souls, need to immediately remove the “Catholic” moniker from any hospital doing such evil and excommunicate all “catholics” involved, from the hospitals’ top dogs (even if—no, especially if—that means excommunicating all of the Religious Sisters who officially own and/or run so many “catholic” hospitals) down to the “ethics department” staff as well as those actually doing the dirty deeds. And the parents who subject their children to such mutilations of both body and soul. And the politicians who champion such causes. And the list goes on... Those “catholics” who think that the above examples of ridiculousness and sickness are real Catholicism will hate the paintings going up at Epiphany this week. To them, the crucifixion of Jesus is a stumbling block, for they are, at best, looking for salvation without the Cross, without the Savior, without God. In the coming weeks you will have an opportunity to hear from our faithful Catholic artist an explanation of the who’s, what’s, and why’s of his work. You will be edified. God will be glorified. Epiphany will be beautified. With prayers for your holiness, Rev. Fr. Edwin Palka From the Pastor: The Polls are Closed. Mostly.
Now that the 2024 elections are finally, mercifully over (at least in most states, although Arizona is still trying to gin up another 18 million past last minute democrat votes), I will say a few words about them. I am glad this stage of the lying is finished! The new stage of lying to the people is just about to begin but at least this segment of it has come to an end. Well, that’s enough politics. I told you it was only going to be a few words. This Monday the nation celebrates Veterans Day. Most years I attend some sort of Veterans Day celebration and listen to politicians giving boring historical talks to groups who know more history of—and have more experience in—war, peace, and being in the military than the blathering politicians do. Yet I go anyway. I figure it’s kind of like you continuing to sit through my sermons, except that I don’t do this every week! This year I planned on attending the Transgendered War Heroes of the Past, Present, and Future medal of dishonor ceremony but it has been canceled because all of the presenters will still be pouting, weeping, mourning, and making Primal Scream videos due to the election results and can’t come out of their safe spaces. It’s just as well, since the... oh, wait, it seems that I almost slipped back into the political realm once again. My apologies. Let me start anew. On Monday the Church celebrates a famous Saint who was also a military Veteran, but in the ancient Roman army, rather than ours. Martin of Tours is best known, perhaps, for the story of one cold winter day when he encountered a beggar who was freezing for lack of proper warm clothing. Martin had nothing to give him but the shirt off his back, or, rather, his military cloak. He cut it in half, keeping one part for himself and giving the other half to the poor beggar. He later had a vision of Jesus wearing that half of his cloak. Our Lord, speaking to the surrounding angels, stated, “Martin, yet a catechumen, hath clothed Me with this garment.” Yes, though he practiced Catholicism with great love and devotion, he had not yet been baptized! Young Martin had been raised by pagan parents but in his youth had encountered Catholic priests and hermits and had desired to give his life to “the God of the Christians” as he called Him. By the time he was finally brought into the Church, he was already quite familiar with Her teachings and customs and desired to be a hermit himself. After leaving military life, he continued his study of Catholicism under Saint Hilary, the Bishop of Poitiers, France. Eventually, he was able to witness his own mother (but not, unfortunately, his father), seven cousins, and two great-uncles received into the Church. Bishop Hilary (which is a man’s name, by the way, but let’s not get back into politics) ordained him to the minor order of Exorcist though he could not at that time convince the humble Martin to accept Major Orders. It was as an Exorcist that he first came face to face with demons. He became quite skilled at fighting them off and the more he defeated them the more they attacked. Soon he was given his own demon to pester him, much like God gives us our own guardian angel. This fallen angel was quite powerful and capable of transforming into various shapes. He often appeared in the form of pagan gods, of women, and of beastly animals. The more this devil tormented Martin, the more resolved he was to drive all the demons away, and he destroyed many pagan temples. Soon he was able to see the demons around him, which helped tremendously in his fight against his own demon as well as those afflicting others. His holiness kept increasing with each fight and soon he was performing miracles, including raising several dead people back to life. When the Bishop of Tours died, the people clamored for Martin, who had by then founded two famous hermitages, to become their next Bishop. He humbly declined. Not many days later, though, a man came out to his hermitage and begged him to come into the city to care for a dying relative. It was all a ruse, and, as soon as he arrived, a group of Bishops who had been called in for this purpose ordained him Bishop of Tours. So many men of old were ordained against their will as the people insisted on having holy Bishops! Oh, what a difference from recent decades when unholy men clamored for this position in order to enter into demonic activity without earthly consequences and without fear of God and His eternal punishments for such evil doings. St. Martin, wanting nothing to do with being a Bishop, battled heretics and demons while increasing in and spreading holiness, while in this day and age those who desire to be Bishops embrace heretics, make pacts with demons, and want nothing to do with holiness! Sadly, this is the kind of Bishop many (most?) Catholics seem to want today. Oh, how we need St. Martin's intercession! Men, if you would like to know more about this great Saint, come to the Martinmas celebration put on by the parish’s Fraternity of St. John the Apostle. It begins Monday evening at 6:00. I am not privy to the plans for the evening so I can’t tell you any more details but each presentation that they have sponsored has been well worth the time. Plus, the food isn’t half-bad, either! With prayers for your holiness, Rev. Fr. Edwin Palka From the Pastor: Resumed Sundays After Epiphany?
It has been quite a few years since I wrote about the “Resumed Sundays After Epiphany.” In fact, I can’t find an article about them in all of my Epiphany bulletin article archives, so it may have been before the TLM came here that I last wrote about it. These “resumed” Sundays show up in our 1962 liturgical calendar near the end of the Church year if needed. What? If needed? What in tarnation does that mean? I’m glad you asked! The Church year begins with the First Sunday of Advent. Advent leads to Christmas. Christmas to Epiphany, which is still part of the Christmas Season (at least until January 13—The Baptism of the Lord, or February 2—His Circumcision and His Mother’s Purification, depending on which author you read). The “Time After Epiphany” includes 6 Sundays pointing us toward Lent, which prepares us for Easter, which is a movable feast that can fall between March 22 and April 25. That variation means that Lent, based on Easter’s date each year, sometimes overlaps with the weeks After Epiphany. In the old calendar, the Season of Lent includes three Sundays (Septuagesima, Sexagesima, and Quinquagesima) before Ash Wednesday. At the beginning of this liturgical year, Septuagesima fell on January 28, the date upon which the Fourth Sunday after Epiphany would have fallen had Easter been later than it was. So we “skipped” the 4th, 5th, and 6th Sundays After Epiphany. But the total number of weeks in a year hasn’t changed, so the early Lent means that we run out of Post Pentecost Sundays before we run out of calendar! This conundrum is fixed by “resuming” where we left off in Epiphany time. Since Lent, Easter, Pentecost (50 days after Easter) and the Sundays After Pentecost were three weeks “early” we simply celebrate those skipped Sundays near the end of the year, although the final Sunday is always the 24th And Last Sunday after Pentecost. That last Sunday falls on November 24th this year, so, counting backward, the Resumed Sixth Sunday after Epiphany falls on November 17, the Resumed Fifth Sunday after Epiphany falls on November 10, and the first one skipped, the Fourth Sunday after Epiphany, shows up on the calendar this week, on November 3. But wait! There is a “catch” this year. November 3 we are celebrating the External Solemnity of our Diocesan Patron Saint, St. Jude, whose actual feast day (along with St. Simon) fell a few days ago, on October 28. The old calendar allows us to celebrate “External Solemnities for special feasts on either the Sunday before the actual date of the feast or on the Sunday immediately following it. These special Feasts include the Patron Saint of the Diocese, as just mentioned, the Patron Saint of the parish (in our case, not a Saint per se but a Feast in and of itself, Epiphany), and other special days that you have already experienced, such as Our Lady of the Rosary, the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and Corpus Christi. Of course, just celebrating a Mass whose readings and prayers were chosen and composed specifically for the time after Epiphany would leave us without a proper continuity of the Post Pentecost theme. So Holy Mother Church, without consulting me about it (for I would have probably said to just “make up” a few extra Masses to fit these slots, while She chose the “waste not want not” approach) decided many centuries ago that for the Resumed Sundays, we would use the same Collects, Epistles, Gospels, Secrets, and PostCommunion prayers of the skipped Masses after Epiphany but that we would use the Introit, Gradual, and Communion antiphon of the 23rd Sunday After Pentecost in place of the “normal” ones each Resumed week, thus “recycling” the Masses but changing the “theme” enough that it more appropriately fits the “end of the year/life” theme of this last part of the cycle. Does that make your head spin? Try finding it in your hand missal and you may be truly confused, for it sends you back to pages that send you to still other pages which also send you to other pages, which you keep turning until you get frustrated and just set the missal down! The Angelus Press missal (the small black one in the pews) gives a handy chart to explain all of this on page 814. If you can figure it out by following the chart to the pages of the pages of the pages it sends you to, you are a genius-level missal master! As for the rest of us, we are grateful for the External Solemnity of Sts. Simon and Jude so that we have one less Resumed Sunday to deal with! And, while we are on the subject of confusion, we have just had an update on the Sunday, December 8 Holy Day of Obligation (The Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary) that was transferred in the new calendar this year to Monday, December 9, and which our USA Bishops then told us is not a Day of Obligation because it falls on a Monday: Rome just stated that it is indeed a Day of Obligation even if transferred to Monday and that the US Bishops should follow Canon Law instead of making up their own rules. I’ll explain more about that later, as it affects both old and new liturgical calendars this year. With prayers for your holiness, Rev. Fr. Edwin Palka |
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