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Morning discussion started at 9 AM and concelebrated Mass chaired by Fr. Lukasz Sorys was next point of the schedule at 11:30. It was followed by lunch. In the afternoon another session was held. Various vocation topics were discussed in very creative climate as this short videoclip shared by Fr. Lukasz shows. Dinner at 6 PM ends official part of the gathering tonight. Fr. Astor shares some photos, too.

More pictures available on our Facebook page

Confreres of the Eastern Province request Vincentian Family prayers for Fr. Goldbach health and recovery. PLURIMOS ANNOS FR. PETER!

UPDATE – APRIL 14, 2012.

Fr. John Freund CM reports: “Fr. Peter is doing quite well despite having had a very mild stroke. One story has it that when the doctor asked had he ever smoked Fr. Peter paused, thought, and said yes… but my last cigarette was in 1931! He has become something of a celebrity patient in the hospital and is expected home”.

UPDATE – APRIL 16, 2012.

Fr. Astor Rodriguez CM reports: “Fr. Peter was moved to Ozanam Hall of Queens Nursing Home, Bayside, NY for therapy and rehab. We will see how that goes.”.

Read more Fr. Peter’s centenarian life [HERE] and watch him sharing story about his over 70 years long voaction:

“Easter means the joy that hatred was defeated by Love… Easter means the hope, that life always makes sense… Easter means belief, that nothing is impossible… Easter means good, joyful and warm wishes…” – homily for the Resurrection Sunday given by Fr. Joseph Szpilski CM in St. Stanislaus Kostka Church, Brooklyn, NY.

Dawn of the first day after Shabat. Nothing special was supposed to happen on that morning. However, there was something, that kept uneasy his associates, who followed Him in recent years and days. It was still dark, when Mary Magdalene arrived to the tomb of Jesus and saw the stone rolled away. She didn’t know what could have happened and decided to notify those who were friends to Him. Response was quick. “Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. When he bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there… Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head… He saw and believed. They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead” (John 20: 4-9). Resurrection of Jesus changed the world. Fr Mieczyslaw Malinski, well-known Polish poet-priest wrote, “We return to the tomb of Jesus, trying to understand what it means to be resurrected … what it means to each of us.” Contrary to what today’s world of consumption suggests, first of all, Resurrection of Jesus teaches us faith and hope. This is why John has wrote, “he went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, as well as the cloth… He saw and believed” (John 20:8). Easter is the feast of faith and hope. We never can forget it!

Cross was installed on the grave of Hubert Roztworowski, Polish poet and playwright of 1920s. One of the arms bears inscription: “Surrexit Christus Spes Mea…” – “Christ Has Risen, My Hope”. Another inscription was made on the cover stone of the tomb, “I BELIEVE”, “WIERZĘ”. Church proclaims the truth of Resurrection since over over twenty centuries. I feel sad, when I hear evil comments about my Church. It hurts when young people turn away from the Church. When they do not feel themselves the Church. It’s annoying to see demons of the past in expressions such as, Christ – YES! Church – NO! Pope John Paul II taught us at Jasna Gora in 1997, “after all the Church is our spiritual mother… The Church is the body of Christ… NO told to the Church might be NO told to the Christ as well; it’s true, that the Church is a reality, human reality, too, which brings together all the limitations and imperfections. She is made of sinful and weak people… Did Christ himself not want, that our faith faced this difficulty? It necessary, that we were faithful children of the Church which we create. If we say Christ YES with our life and faith, we have to say Church YES, too”.

Easter is the feast of faith, confidence and life! It’s striving for what is high above not for what is earthly, as we read in the Letter of St. Paul to Colossians (cf, 3:2). Easter means the joy that hatred was defeated by Love… Easter means the hope, that life always makes sense… Easter means belief, that nothing is impossible… Easter means good, joyful and warm wishes… This is why we repeat after Klaus Hemerle, a German bishop: “Let us wish ourselves to have Easter eyes giving us opportunity to see the splendor of Easter ALLELUIA in death; to see the mystery of living in sin in the hope of forgiveness; to see God’s Mercy in consciousness of guilt; to see indestructible unity in separation; to see mystery of God in human person; to see human dignity in God; to live human «YOU» in my «I»”

To all of You, and by You to your relatives and those whom you meet at the Eastertime, I wish Easter eyes… such eyes which can see what is invisible.

Fr. Joseph Szpilski, C.M.

“Wielkanoc to radość, że nienawiść została pokonana przez Miłość … Wielkanoc to nadzieja, że życie zawsze ma sens … Wielkanoc to przekonanie, że nie ma rzeczy niemożliwych …Wielkanoc to życzenia dobra, ciepła i radości”

Wczesny ranek pierwszego dnia po szabacie nic nie zapowiadało wyjątkowego poranka. A jednak coś nie dawało spokoju tym, którzy towarzyszyli Mu w czasie ostatnich lat i dni. Było jeszcze ciemno, gdy Maria Magdalena przybyła do grobu Jezusa i zobaczyła odsunięty kamień. Nie wiedziała co mogło się stać. Postanowiła zawiadomić tych, którzy się z Nim przyjaźnili. Reakcja była, natychmiastowa: “Biegli oni obydwaj razem lecz ów drugi uczeń wyprzedził Piotra i przybył pierwszy do grobu. A kiedy się nachylił, zobaczył leżące płótna … Nadszedł potem Szymon Piotr, idący za nim. Wszedł do wnętrza grobu i ujrzał leżące płótna oraz chustę. . . Ujrzał i uwierzył. Dotąd bowiem nie rozumieli jeszcze Pisma, które mówi, że On ma powstać z martwych”. /J 20, 4-9/ Zmartwychwstanie Jezusa zmieniło świat. Jak pisał Ks. Mieczysław Maliński: “Wracamy do grobu Jezusa, starając się zrozumieć, co znaczy zmartwychwstać … co to znaczy dla każdego z nas”. Wbrew temu, co podpowiada dzisiejszy konsumpcyjny świat, Zmartwychwstanie Jezusa uczy przede wszystkim wiary i nadziei.To dlatego św. Jan napisał: “Wszedł do wnętrza grobu i ujrzał leżące płótna oraz chustę … Ujrzał i uwierzył” /J.20,8/ Wielkanoc jest świętem wiary i nadziei. Nie można o tym zapominać!

Nad grobem dramaturga i poety lat międzywojennych Karola Huberta Rostworowskiego umieszczono krzyż. Na jednym z ramion widnieje napis: “Surexit Christus spes mea …” “Zmartwychwstanie Chrystusa nadzieja moja”. Na kamieniu poniżej krzyża, leżącym na płycie grobowej, umieszczono napis: “WIERZĘ” … Kościół prawdę o Zmartwychwstaniu głosi od ponad 2000 lat. Przykro mi, gdy słyszę, że o moim Kościele mówi się źle. Boli, kiedy młodzi odwracają się od Kościoła, nie czują się Kościołem. Przykro, gdy ciągle wracają demony przeszłości w zwrotach: Chrystus -TAK! Kościół – NIE! Pouczał nas Papież Jan Paweł II na Jasnej Górze w 1997 roku: “Kościół jest przecież naszą duchową matką … Kościół jest ciałem Chrystusa … NIE powiedziane Kościołowi byłoby również NIE powiedzianym Chrystusowi; to prawda, że Kościół jest rzeczywistością także ludzką, która niesie w sobie wszystkie ograniczenia i niedoskonałości. Składa się bowiem z ludzi grzesznych i słabych … Czy Chrystus sam nie chciał, by nasza wiara w Kościele zmierzyła się z tą trudnością? Trzeba, abyśmy byli wiernymi dziećmi Kościoła, który tworzymy. Jeśli naszą wiarą i życiem mówimy TAK Chrystusowi, to trzeba również powiedzieć TAK Kościołowi”.

Wielkanoc to święto wiary, ufności i życia! To dążenie do tego, co w górze, nie do tego , co na ziemi – jak napisał św. Paweł w Liście do Kolosan / Kol. 3,2 /. Wielkanoc to radość, że nienawiść została pokonana przez Miłość … Wielkanoc to nadzieja, że życie zawsze ma sens … Wielkanoc to przekonanie, że nie ma rzeczy niemożliwych …Wielkanoc to życzenia dobra, ciepła i radości … Dlatego powtarzamy za niemieckim biskupem Klausem Hemerle: “Życzmy sobie wielkanocnych oczu, które pozwalają nam dostrzec blask wielkanocnego ALLELUJA – w śmierci – tajemnicę życia w grzechu- nadzieję przebaczenia, w świadomości win: – Boże Miłosierdzie, w rozstaniu – niezniszczalną jedność, w człowieku – tajemnicę Boga, w Bogu – godność człowieka, w moim “ja” – przeżywać ludzkie “TY”!”

Wszystkim Wam, a za Waszą przyczyną bliskim i tym, których spotkacie w świątecznym czasie, życzę Wielkanocnych oczu… Takich oczu, które potrafią dostrzec to, co niedostrzegalne …

Ks. Józef Szpilski, C.M

Ceremony of washing feet of twelve men, usually priest from diocese of Rome, followed the homily. Benedict XVI washed their feet himself. It is a tradition, that collection during the Lord’s Supper is dedicated to those who suffer from disasters and are persecuted. This year attention was drawn to refugees and victims of persecutions in Syria.

Video recording from the liturgy of Lord’s Supper
Booklet for the liturgical celebration

Dear Brothers and Sisters!

Holy Thursday is not only the day of the institution of the Most Holy Eucharist, whose splendour bathes all else and in some ways draws it to itself. To Holy Thursday also belongs the dark night of the Mount of Olives, to which Jesus goes with his disciples; the solitude and abandonment of Jesus, who in prayer goes forth to encounter the darkness of death; the betrayal of Judas, Jesus’ arrest and his denial by Peter; his indictment before the Sanhedrin and his being handed over to the Gentiles, to Pilate. Let us try at this hour to understand more deeply something of these events, for in them the mystery of our redemption takes place.

Jesus goes forth into the night. Night signifies lack of communication, a situation where people do not see one another. It is a symbol of incomprehension, of the obscuring of truth. It is the place where evil, which has to hide before the light, can grow. Jesus himself is light and truth, communication, purity and goodness. He enters into the night. Night is ultimately a symbol of death, the definitive loss of fellowship and life. Jesus enters into the night in order to overcome it and to inaugurate the new Day of God in the history of humanity.

On the way, he sang with his disciples Israel’s psalms of liberation and redemption, which evoked the first Passover in Egypt, the night of liberation. Now he goes, as was his custom, to pray in solitude and, as Son, to speak with the Father. But, unusually, he wants to have close to him three disciples: Peter, James and John. These are the three who had experienced his Transfiguration – when the light of God’s glory shone through his human figure – and had seen him standing between the Law and the Prophets, between Moses and Elijah. They had heard him speaking to both of them about his “exodus” to Jerusalem. Jesus’ exodus to Jerusalem – how mysterious are these words! Israel’s exodus from Egypt had been the event of escape and liberation for God’s People. What would be the form taken by the exodus of Jesus, in whom the meaning of that historic drama was to be definitively fulfilled? The disciples were now witnessing the first stage of that exodus – the utter abasement which was nonetheless the essential step of the going forth to the freedom and new life which was the goal of the exodus. The disciples, whom Jesus wanted to have close to him as an element of human support in that hour of extreme distress, quickly fell asleep. Yet they heard some fragments of the words of Jesus’ prayer and they witnessed his way of acting. Both were deeply impressed on their hearts and they transmitted them to Christians for all time. Jesus called God “Abba”. The word means – as they add – “Father”. Yet it is not the usual form of the word “father”, but rather a children’s word – an affectionate name which one would not have dared to use in speaking to God. It is the language of the one who is truly a “child”, the Son of the Father, the one who is conscious of being in communion with God, in deepest union with him.

If we ask ourselves what is most characteristic of the figure of Jesus in the Gospels, we have to say that it is his relationship with God. He is constantly in communion with God. Being with the Father is the core of his personality. Through Christ we know God truly. “No one has ever seen God”, says Saint John. The one “who is close to the Father’s heart … has made him known” (1:18). Now we know God as he truly is. He is Father, and this in an absolute goodness to which we can entrust ourselves. The evangelist Mark, who has preserved the memories of Saint Peter, relates that Jesus, after calling God “Abba”, went on to say: “Everything is possible for you. You can do all things” (cf. 14:36). The one who is Goodness is at the same time Power; he is all-powerful. Power is goodness and goodness is power. We can learn this trust from Jesus’ prayer on the Mount of Olives.

Before reflecting on the content of Jesus’ petition, we must still consider what the evangelists tell us about Jesus’ posture during his prayer. Matthew and Mark tell us that he “threw himself on the ground” (Mt 26:39; cf. Mk 14:35), thus assuming a posture of complete submission, as is preserved in the Roman liturgy of Good Friday. Luke, on the other hand, tells us that Jesus prayed on his knees. In the Acts of the Apostles, he speaks of the saints praying on their knees: Stephen during his stoning, Peter at the raising of someone who had died, Paul on his way to martyrdom. In this way Luke has sketched a brief history of prayer on one’s knees in the early Church. Christians, in kneeling, enter into Jesus’ prayer on the Mount of Olives. When menaced by the power of evil, as they kneel, they are upright before the world, while as sons and daughters, they kneel before the Father. Before God’s glory we Christians kneel and acknowledge his divinity; by that posture we also express our confidence that he will prevail.

Jesus struggles with the Father. He struggles with himself. And he struggles for us. He experiences anguish before the power of death. First and foremost this is simply the dread natural to every living creature in the face of death. In Jesus, however, something more is at work. His gaze peers deeper, into the nights of evil. He sees the filthy flood of all the lies and all the disgrace which he will encounter in that chalice from which he must drink. His is the dread of one who is completely pure and holy as he sees the entire flood of this world’s evil bursting upon him. He also sees me, and he prays for me. This moment of Jesus’ mortal anguish is thus an essential part of the process of redemption. Consequently, the Letter to the Hebrews describes the struggle of Jesus on the Mount of Olives as a priestly event. In this prayer of Jesus, pervaded by mortal anguish, the Lord performs the office of a priest: he takes upon himself the sins of humanity, of us all, and he brings us before the Father.

Lastly, we must also pay attention to the content of Jesus’ prayer on the Mount of Olives. Jesus says: “Father, for you all things are possible; remove this cup from me; yet not what I want, but what you want” (Mk 14:36). The natural will of the man Jesus recoils in fear before the enormity of the matter. He asks to be spared. Yet as the Son, he places this human will into the Father’s will: not I, but you. In this way he transformed the stance of Adam, the primordial human sin, and thus heals humanity. The stance of Adam was: not what you, O God, have desired; rather, I myself want to be a god. This pride is the real essence of sin. We think we are free and truly ourselves only if we follow our own will. God appears as the opposite of our freedom. We need to be free of him – so we think – and only then will we be free. This is the fundamental rebellion present throughout history and the fundamental lie which perverts life. When human beings set themselves against God, they set themselves against the truth of their own being and consequently do not become free, but alienated from themselves. We are free only if we stand in the truth of our being, if we are united to God. Then we become truly “like God” – not by resisting God, eliminating him, or denying him. In his anguished prayer on the Mount of Olives, Jesus resolved the false opposition between obedience and freedom, and opened the path to freedom. Let us ask the Lord to draw us into this “yes” to God’s will, and in this way to make us truly free. Amen.

© Copyright 2012 – Libreria Editrice Vaticana, RadioVaticana

Wielki Czwartek – Msza Św. Wieczerzy Pańskiej
– homilia Benedykta XVI

Video recording of the Crism Mass, St. Peter’s Basilica
Booklet for the celebration

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

At this Holy Mass our thoughts go back to that moment when, through prayer and the laying on of hands, the bishop made us sharers in the priesthood of Jesus Christ, so that we might be “consecrated in truth” (Jn 17:19), as Jesus besought the Father for us in his high-priestly prayer. He himself is the truth. He has consecrated us, that is to say, handed us over to God for ever, so that we can offer men and women a service that comes from God and leads to him. But does our consecration extend to the daily reality of our lives – do we operate as men of God in fellowship with Jesus Christ? This question places the Lord before us and us before him. “Are you resolved to be more united with the Lord Jesus and more closely conformed to him, denying yourselves and confirming those promises about sacred duties towards Christ’s Church which, prompted by love of him, you willingly and joyfully pledged on the day of your priestly ordination?” After this homily, I shall be addressing that question to each of you here and to myself as well. Two things, above all, are asked of us: there is a need for an interior bond, a configuration to Christ, and at the same time there has to be a transcending of ourselves, a renunciation of what is simply our own, of the much-vaunted self-fulfilment. We need, I need, not to claim my life as my own, but to place it at the disposal of another – of Christ. I should be asking not what I stand to gain, but what I can give for him and so for others. Or to put it more specifically, this configuration to Christ, who came not to be served but to serve, who does not take, but rather gives – what form does it take in the often dramatic situation of the Church today? Recently a group of priests from a European country issued a summons to disobedience, and at the same time gave concrete examples of the forms this disobedience might take, even to the point of disregarding definitive decisions of the Church’s Magisterium, such as the question of women’s ordination, for which Blessed Pope John Paul II stated irrevocably that the Church has received no authority from the Lord. Is disobedience a path of renewal for the Church? We would like to believe that the authors of this summons are motivated by concern for the Church, that they are convinced that the slow pace of institutions has to be overcome by drastic measures, in order to open up new paths and to bring the Church up to date. But is disobedience really a way to do this? Do we sense here anything of that configuration to Christ which is the precondition for all true renewal, or do we merely sense a desperate push to do something to change the Church in accordance with one’s own preferences and ideas?

But let us not oversimplify matters. Surely Christ himself corrected human traditions which threatened to stifle the word and the will of God? Indeed he did, so as to rekindle obedience to the true will of God, to his ever enduring word. His concern was for true obedience, as opposed to human caprice. Nor must we forget: he was the Son, possessed of singular authority and responsibility to reveal the authentic will of God, so as to open up the path for God’s word to the world of the nations. And finally: he lived out his task with obedience and humility all the way to the Cross, and so gave credibility to his mission. Not my will, but thine be done: these words reveal to us the Son, in his humility and his divinity, and they show us the true path.

Let us ask again: do not such reflections serve simply to defend inertia, the fossilization of traditions? No. Anyone who considers the history of the post-conciliar era can recognize the process of true renewal, which often took unexpected forms in living movements and made almost tangible the inexhaustible vitality of holy Church, the presence and effectiveness of the Holy Spirit. And if we look at the people from whom these fresh currents of life burst forth and continue to burst forth, then we see that this new fruitfulness requires being filled with the joy of faith, the radicalism of obedience, the dynamic of hope and the power of love.

Dear friends, it is clear that configuration to Christ is the precondition and the basis for all renewal. But perhaps at times the figure of Jesus Christ seems too lofty and too great for us to dare to measure ourselves by him. The Lord knows this. So he has provided “translations” on a scale that is more accessible and closer to us. For this same reason, Saint Paul did not hesitate to say to his communities: Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ. For his disciples, he was a “translation” of Christ’s manner of life that they could see and identify with. Ever since Paul’s time, history has furnished a constant flow of other such “translations” of Jesus’ way into historical figures. We priests can call to mind a great throng of holy priests who have gone before us and shown us the way: from Polycarp of Smyrna and Ignatius of Antioch, from the great pastors Ambrose, Augustine and Gregory the Great, through to Ignatius of Loyola, Charles Borromeo, John Mary Vianney and the priest-martyrs of the 20th century, and finally Pope John Paul II, who gave us an example, through his activity and his suffering, of configuration to Christ as “gift and mystery”. The saints show us how renewal works and how we can place ourselves at its service. And they help us realize that God is not concerned so much with great numbers and with outward successes, but achieves his victories under the humble sign of the mustard seed.

Dear friends, I would like briefly to touch on two more key phrases from the renewal of ordination promises, which should cause us to reflect at this time in the Church’s life and in our own lives. Firstly, the reminder that – as Saint Paul put it – we are “stewards of the mysteries of God” (1 Cor 4:1) and we are charged with the ministry of teaching, the (munus docendi), which forms a part of this stewardship of God’s mysteries, through which he shows us his face and his heart, in order to give us himself. At the meeting of Cardinals on the occasion of the recent Consistory, several of the pastors of the Church spoke, from experience, of the growing religious illiteracy found in the midst of our sophisticated society. The foundations of faith, which at one time every child knew, are now known less and less. But if we are to live and love our faith, if we are to love God and to hear him aright, we need to know what God has said to us – our minds and hearts must be touched by his word. The Year of Faith, commemorating the opening of the Second Vatican Council fifty years ago, should provide us with an occasion to proclaim the message of faith with new enthusiasm and new joy. We find it of course first and foremost in sacred Scripture, which we can never read and ponder enough. Yet at the same time we all experience the need for help in accurately expounding it in the present day, if it is truly to touch our hearts. This help we find first of all in the words of the teaching Church: the texts of the Second Vatican Council and the Catechism of the Catholic Church are essential tools which serve as an authentic guide to what the Church believes on the basis of God’s word. And of course this also includes the whole wealth of documents given to us by Pope John Paul II, still far from being fully explored.

All our preaching must measure itself against the saying of Jesus Christ: “My teaching is not mine” (Jn 7:16). We preach not private theories and opinions, but the faith of the Church, whose servants we are. Naturally this should not be taken to mean that I am not completely supportive of this teaching, or solidly anchored in it. In this regard I am always reminded of the words of Saint Augustine: what is so much mine as myself? And what is so little mine as myself? I do not own myself, and I become myself by the very fact that I transcend myself, and thereby become a part of Christ, a part of his body the Church. If we do not preach ourselves, and if we are inwardly so completely one with him who called us to be his ambassadors, that we are shaped by faith and live it, then our preaching will be credible. I do not seek to win people for myself, but I give myself. The Curé of Ars was no scholar, no intellectual, we know that. But his preaching touched people’s hearts because his own heart had been touched.

The last keyword that I should like to consider is “zeal for souls”: animarum zelus. It is an old-fashioned expression, not much used these days. In some circles, the word “soul” is virtually banned because – ostensibly – it expresses a body-soul dualism that wrongly compartmentalizes the human being. Of course the human person is a unity, destined for eternity as body and soul. And yet that cannot mean that we no longer have a soul, a constituent principle guaranteeing our unity in this life and beyond earthly death. And as priests, of course, we are concerned for the whole person, including his or her physical needs – we care for the hungry, the sick, the homeless. And yet we are concerned not only with the body, but also with the needs of the soul: with those who suffer from the violation of their rights or from destroyed love, with those unable to perceive the truth, those who suffer for lack of truth and love. We are concerned with the salvation of men and women in body and soul. And as priests of Jesus Christ we carry out our task with enthusiasm. No one should ever have the impression that we work conscientiously when on duty, but before and after hours we belong only to ourselves. A priest never belongs to himself. People must sense our zeal, through which we bear credible witness to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Let us ask the Lord to fill us with joy in his message, so that we may serve his truth and his love with joyful zeal. Amen.

© Copyright 2012 – Libreria Editrice Vaticana, Radio Vaticana

Wielki Czwartek: homilia Benedykta XVI — Msza św. Krzyżma

Most Rev. G. Gregory Gay, C.M.

Most Rev. Robert P. Maloney, C.M.

These interviews are part of the series Fr. Astor Rodriguez prepared recently. Others interviewed are Fr. Patrick Griffin CM, Director General of the Daughters of Charity and Fr. Aidan Rooney CM, Superior of the International Mission in Bolivia. He shares his own story, too.