Author: Paul Zalonski

The President & Prayer

This evening the Pastor and I attended the local observance
of the 58th Annual observance of the National Day of Prayer. This year’s theme was “Prayer…America’s Hope.” The occasion was OK. It was Scripture-based with
free prayer offered for certain areas of concern (business, family, education,
military, government, church). I was only impressed that 50 gathered for prayer
for the nation, state and city; I wasn’t particularly impressed by the concern
for all faiths to be represented. One significant disappointment was that it
was too Christian, (too evangelical) and not interfaith. This is not the
typical complaint you would ordinarily hear from me but the fact is event was the
National Day of Prayer it was designed to be inclusive of the city’s various
faith traditions. I freely admit that many occasions of prayer done in the
interfaith mode are vapid and simply not done well. The representatives of the
Jewish and Muslim faiths were not present and neither were the Buddhist monks
nor the Episcopalians nor Lutherans. It would’ve been good to have the
clergypeople from the various ecclesial communities and interfaith communities
present, but let’s be careful not to fall into the trap of essentialism.

The National Day of Prayer was established in 1952 by President
Truman and President Reagan determined by resolution in 1988 to observe the day
on the first Thursday of May. 

The problem I have with President Obama on this matter is
that he decided to sideline public observance of prayer under the guise that he
didn’t want to wear his faith on his cufflinks. Fine, don’t make a show it. But
let’s be honest, does the President think he can run the country without God?
Does he think that his example is good leadership? So, ultimately I can accept
that the White House would not have its own prayer time but that they would not
attend any of the other prayer observances in the District, including the
National Day of Prayer Task Force, I find arrogant.

The President’s press secretary Robert Gibbs says that
“Prayer is something the President does everyday.” Really? I am unconvinced.

Of course, the President can neither tell us to pray nor how
to pray but he does open the possibility for the nation to pray for the good of
the nation by his own witness. If an atheist were chagrined by a prayer day
then that person could simply observe a moment of silence or offer a poem that
lends itself to the ideal of patriotism or the common good. Whatever the case
may be in today’s context, the point is that is important to gather people of
good will with the hope of being united in something spiritual, something that
takes the other person’s destiny seriously.

For those interested in some further thinking on ecumenism and interfaith matters, I recommend Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI’s Truth and Tolerance: Christian Belief and World Religions (Ignatius Press, 2004).

Types of Ecumenism

Theological: concerns with regard to matters of doctrine, Liturgy and theology;

Local: promotes the
collaboration and cooperation between Christian communities living in the same
place;

Social: refers to
when the entire community is invited to participate in an activity to help
others; matters of social concern affect everybody;

Spiritual: encourages
praying together as in the Week of Prayer, for the intention of Christian unity and one’s own conversion.

Following the Lord according to Saint Francis (& the Friars of the Renewal)

Watch this compelling video on the life of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal. While my vocation is not to be a friar of the Renewal, I am continually amazed by their vitality, zeal, and witness to the power of Christ crucified and risen.

Perhaps you have a vocation to follow Christ as a brother, priest or sister as a Franciscan of the Renewal.

Cyril Vasil: the new secretary for the Congregation of Eastern Churches


Cyril Vasil.jpeg

Great News! Today, the Holy Father nominated Reverend Father
Cyril Vasil, SJ, until now the rector of the Pontifical Oriental Institute, as
the Secretary to the Congregation for Eastern Churches, raising him to the
dignity of archbishop.

Archbishop-elect Cyril Vasil was born in 1965 (in Slovakia),
ordained a priest in 1987, entered the Society of Jesus in 1990 taking solemn
vows in 2001. In 1994 he earned a doctorate in Canon Law from the Pontifical
Oriental Institute. He has a working knowledge of 11 languages.

In 2002, Cyril Vasil was elected dean of the faculty of
Oriental Canon Law and in 2007 he was named rector of the Pontifical Oriental
Institute. He is the first rector of the PIO to be of the Byzantine Catholic Church.

Among his responsibilities for the Church he is a consultor
for the Congregations of Eastern Churches, Doctrine of the Faith and Pastoral
Care of Migrants. Moreover, he was an expert for the 2005 Synod of Bishops on
the Eucharist. And he’s been active in the International Union of Scouts of
Europe being named a spiritual advisor in 2003.

I can say that this is an excellent choice for the Church: he’s
affable and competent. With Archbishop Vasil’s appointment there are now two Jesuits in prominent positions in the Roman Curia, both are archbishop secretaries. It is also interesting to note that the new archbishop is the first in history working as a Vatican official to be the son of a married Catholic priest of Slovak Greek-Catholic Church, the vast majority of whose clergy are married family men in accord with the age-old (and fully salutary) tradition in the Byzantine East, Catholic and Orthodox. His father, Michael, was ordained by Blessed Vasil Hopko.

What do we owe others?

The renowned German Lutheran theologian Dietrich
Bonhoeffer once remarked, “it is very easy to over-estimate the importance of
our own achievements in comparison with what we owe others.”

Indeed. Beginning right now let’s take an honest look at ourselves and our work.

Receiving the Eucharist in sin

For some reason–and we can all make our own list as to
why–many Catholics have gotten away from the sacrament of Confession. I know my
own sense of grace and sin sends off an alarm when I receive Holy Communion
with mortal sin on my soul. My conscience gets the best of me as I think of
Saint Paul’s warning that receiving the Eucharistic Lord with sin on the soul: to do so is at one’s own peril. Avoiding Confession is imprudent, that is, not good at
all because one ignores reality, a life with sin squeezes out grace, one ignores the fact of Jesus’ love for me
personally and mercifully and our humanity is reduced. Some theologians and commentators will say that the Eucharist
is forbidden Food if one receives the Eucharistic Lord with mortal sin on the
soul. Saint John-Mary Vianney had strong thoughts about the subject:

St John-Mary Vianney2.jpg

“How many have the temerity to approach the holy table
with sins hidden and disguised in confession. How many have not that sorrow
which the good God wants from them, and preserve a secret willingness to fall
back into sin, and do not put forth all their exertions to amend. How many do
not avoid the occasions of sin when they can, or preserve enmity in their
hearts even at the holy table. If you have ever been in these dispositions in
approaching Holy Communion, you have committed a sacrilege. It attacks the
Person of Jesus Christ Himself instead of scorning only His Commandments, like
other mortal sins.” Vianney would also say that receiving Holy Eucharist
with sin on the soul “crucifies Jesus Christ in his heart.”

Those of us who claim to have a conscience would not be
pleased to hear from Saints Paul and John Vianney that by receiving Communion unworthily have
worked out our condemnation. Saint John-Mary Vianney was not a saccharine man, was he?

Sister Mary Veronica Grzelak, CSFN, RIP

This morning I attended the Mass of Christian Burial of Sister Mary Veronica (of the Eucharistic Face of the Lord) Grzelak. Sister Veronica was 98 years old and 83 years a professed religious sister in the Congregation of Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth and she was my grammar school principal. The chaplain to the sisters, Father James Cole, gave a fine homily connecting the suffering and pain we suffer here, as Sister Veronica did in the last years of her life, with the suffering and pain of the Lord. That is, suffering and pain is redemptive, that is, it has real meaning if we accept it and connect it with the Lord’s suffering. Therefore we say that in connecting our trials here with someone greater than ourselves allows us not to focus on ourselves alone but on the needs and sufferings of those around us, indeed others in the world. In this case, that someone is the Jesus.

The Nazareth sisters mourn a great and brilliant woman; Sister Veronica, like all of us, was a complicated person but a loving and wildly generous woman of faith who gave a great witness to the Lord’s generosity. When I last saw Sister Veronica about 10 years ago she gave me a great big hug and kiss. On Friday, the day she died, I returned the gesture of love and thanked her. Our Christian lives are necessarily marked by gratitude or they are not really Christian.

I graduated Saint Stanislaus School (New Haven, CT) 26 years ago. I never would have thought now I would have had an adult relationship with the congregation of sisters who taught me in grammar school never mind be a part of the funeral rites of one of the sisters. Sister Veronica was 72 years old when she was my principal and continued to work for years afterward. When most people retire for active work, Sister Mary Veronica (of the Eucharistic Face of the Lord) Grzelak continued to be an icon of the generosity of the Lord.

Walking around the cemetery I noticed the names of others Nazareth sisters I knew: Sister Mary Carol, Sister Mary Rosetta, Sister Mary Eleanor, Sister Mary Joanita.

God grant them rest, peace and light!

How does one consider a vocation?

My friend Father Jay Toborowsky (a priest of the Diocese of Metuchen) posted a brief piece on the promotion of vocations. In the days following Good Shepherd Sunday I think it is worth the time giving serious consideration to how we discern the Lord’s call in life. How do we understand the call to love and to be sacrificial? How aware are you of the Lord’s deep and abiding love for you right now?