Our Beautiful Church
My Dear Parishioners,
We do not have to travel to Europe to see and pray in a beautiful church. We have it right here. We are so blessed to have our church!
Prominent in our beautiful church are our magnificent stained-glass windows. On the Columbia Avenue side of the church, they illustrate the Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary. On the County Line Road side of the church, they illustrate the Glorious Mysteries of the Rosary.
Our windows are the Holy Gospels and the Teachings of the Church in art. They make these Gospels’ passages and Teachings real and personal and easy to visualize.
When mediating with the window of the Annunciation, it is easy to visualize the moment “the Angel of the Lord declared unto Mary, and she conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit.”
When mediating with the window of the Visitation, it is easy to visualize the moment “the infant leaped with joy” in the womb of St. Elizabeth, and Mary sang with equal joy her Magnificat: my soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for He has looked with favor on His lowly servant, from this day all generations will call me blessed.
When mediating with the window of the Nativity, Christmas comes alive for us, and we can’t help but to join the Angels in proclaiming “Glory to God in the Highest.”
Moving to the County Line Road side of the church, the Pentecost window helps to easily visualize the moment when the Holy Spirit descended upon the Blessed Apostles in the presence of our Blessed Mother. We can then mediate on the beginnings of our Holy Church and generations since who have handed down True Religion to us.
We can then move back and forth between the Ascension of Our Lord, the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and the Coronation of the Blessed Virgin Mary windows. As we do, we mediate on Heaven. These windows remind us that Heaven is real. These windows remind us that Heaven is far more beautiful than we can ever image. These windows, most importantly, remind us that Heaven is very possible.
This is when we turn our attention from our beautiful windows to our beautiful Tabernacle, where Jesus is waiting. With Him, all things are possible; most especially with Him, Heaven is possible.
Come, let us Adore Him!
Monday Eucharistic Adoration is resuming Monday, September 8. Monday, September 8 is also the birthday of our Blessed Mother. Give Mary the gift she wants: she wants you to spend time with her Son Jesus on Mondays in Adoration. Signup sheets will soon be available. Make Mary happy by signing up and committing to an hour with her Son, Jesus.
Our CCD program is also making final preparations for the Fall semester. It isn’t too late to enroll your child or grandchild. It isn’t too late to commit to volunteer as a teacher or hall monitor. As always, if you volunteer, you will get more from the children then you give.
Our adult and children’s choirs are also getting ready to begin Fall practices. It is never too late to contact our music director, Mrs. Maria Lennon, if you would like to add to the beauty of our liturgies with either your voice or an instrument that you play.
This Monday, August 25, is the Feast of St. Louis. I am including an excerpt from a letter he wrote to his son Philip. In it, he gives good advice to the future king, encouraging him to live both public life and a private life pleasing to God. Let us then lay siege to Heaven for more leaders like St. Louis.
St. Joseph, Patron of the Church, and our patron, pray for us!
Fr. Michael J Pawelko, Pastor.
Letter from St. Louis to his son Philip
Dear son, since I desire with all my heart that you be well “instructed in all things, it is in my thought to give you some advice in writing. For I have heard you say, several times, that you remember my words better than those of anyone else.
My dearest son, my first instruction is that you should love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your strength. Without this there is no salvation.
Keep yourself, my son, from everything that you know displeases God, that is to say, from every mortal sin. You should permit yourself to be tormented by every kind of martyrdom before you would allow yourself to commit a mortal sin.
If the Lord has permitted you to have some trial, bear it willingly and with gratitude, considering that it has happened for your good and that perhaps you well deserved it. If the Lord bestows upon you any kind of prosperity, thank him humbly and see that you become no worse for it, either through vain pride or anything else, because you ought not to oppose God or offend him in the matter of his gifts.
Dear son, I advise you that you accustom yourself to frequent confession, and that you choose always, as your confessors, men who are upright and sufficiently learned, and who can teach you what you should do and what you should avoid. You should so carry yourself that your confessors and other friends may dare confidently to reprove you and show you your faults.
Listen to the divine office with pleasure and devotion. As long as you are in church, be careful not to let your eyes wander and not to speak empty words, but pray to the Lord devoutly, either aloud or with the interior prayer of the heart.
Be kindhearted to the poor, the unfortunate and the afflicted. Give them as much help and consolation as you can. Thank God for all the benefits he has bestowed upon you, that you may be worthy to receive greater. Be just to your subjects, swaying neither to right nor left, but holding the line of justice. Always side with the poor rather than with the rich, until you are certain of the truth. See that all your subjects live in justice and peace, but especially those who have ecclesiastical rank and who belong to religious orders. Love all good, and hate all evil, in whomsoever it may be. Let no one be so bold as to say, in your presence, words which attract and lead to sin, and do not permit words of detraction to be spoken of another behind his back.
Dear son, give thanks to God often for all the good things He has done for you, so that you may be worthy to receive more, in such a manner that if it please the Lord that you come to the burden and honor of governing the kingdom, you may be worthy to receive the sacred unction wherewith the kings of France are consecrated.
Seek diligently, most sweet son, to have good magistrates and judges in your land, and inquire frequently concerning their doings, and how they conduct themselves, and if they administer justice well, and do no wrong to any one, nor anything which they ought not do.
Inquire more often concerning those of your household if they be too covetous or too arrogant; for it is natural that the members should seek to imitate their chief; that is, when the master is wise and well-behaved, all those of his household follow his example and prefer it. For however much you ought to hate evil in others you should have more hatred for the evil which comes from those who derive their power from you, than you bear to the evil of others. Be devout and obedient to our mother the Church of Rome and the Supreme Pontiff as your spiritual father. Work to remove all sin from your land, particularly blasphemies and heresies.
In conclusion, dearest son, I give you every blessing that a loving father can give a son. May the three Persons of the Holy Trinity and all the saints protect you from every evil. And may the Lord give you the grace to do his will so that he may be served and honored through you, that in the next life we may together come to see him, love him and praise him unceasingly. Amen.