I hope that your summer has blessed you with many special moments. Today’s gospel has a lot to do with leisure, with living, with getting a fresh perspective on things. 

It's a story about this person whose land produces a bumper crop. What to do - so great is the harvest. No problems so far. If there is a problem it’s a good problem - he's blessed with abundance. So Jesus says that he demolishes his existing buildings in order to make room for the surplus crop. Still no problems with his actions. He's worked hard. And now an adequate facility needs to be built to expand his business.  So far, we're exactly in line with this fellow. 

But then Jesus lets us overhear this guy as he begins to talk to himself; a sort of brain to wallet to soul meeting.  ‘You've made it! You’ve really made it! No more work for you; you can just ease on into retirement and live off the interest. You know eat, drink, and be merry kinds of stuff.’  Just ease out of life? Just unplug ourselves from life and take it easy?

However another voice breaks up his thought. ‘Fool,’ says God. ‘Tonight your soul will be required. So then who'll get your things; you certainly won't.’

Seems Jesus is warning us against being greedy.  Greed is probably one of the biggest temptations we face as billions of dollars are pumped into our world to try and convince us that Jesus was wrong about greed. 

But there is something more here. Something much larger than greed. Something to do with the way we view life and death. The fool apparently believed what so many people believe today, that you only go around once in life. That the only life we have is the here and now.  Aren't sure about heaven, or don't know much about eternity; what we do have is the present. You see, if you and I hold to that kind of attitude - make a killing and enjoy it now because we sure won't be able to enjoy it after we're dead.

But the Good News of the Gospel reminds us that though we live in the world like everyone else, life does not consist in things, but in our relationship that God has initiated with us through Jesus Christ.  We are people the resurrection; people, who by our baptism have pledged ourselves to another - Jesus. We are truly free to make our living, rise in our careers, raise our kids, bury our dead--all within the larger awareness that God has more riding on us than just this life. Yes, let us take moments to eat, drink, and be merry! That's what summers and families are about.  But when it comes to how we view this world, eat, drink, and be wise—for tomorrow you live.

As part of our role as priests, we often find ourselves in the position of being a listening ear for those who come to us with their troubles. Sometimes, all they need is someone to talk to, and other times, they seek solace in prayer. This brings us to the question: why do we pray? If God already knows our needs before we ask, what is the purpose of prayer?
Reflecting on this, it is evident that if anyone understood the significance of prayer, it would be Jesus himself. Despite knowing the needs and desires of his disciples, Jesus did not dismiss the act of prayer. Instead, he taught us the Lord's Prayer, a prayer that continues to be recited by many daily. This emphasizes the importance of staying connected with God through prayer.
However, there are moments when our prayers seem unanswered, leaving us feeling as though we have been handed a snake instead of the fish we asked for. The writer C.S. Lewis reflected on this.  After he married his wife Joy, their happiness was short-lived when they discovered that she had cancer. Lewis prayed and prayed. A friend, a fellow university professor, asked why he prayed. And Lewis answered that he simply had to pray, that he could not do anything but pray. In his helplessness, praying brought him some peace. His prayers, he said, did not change God, but they did change him. 

Prayers changing the pray-er.
Remember the scene in the Garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus prayed?  He was in trouble. He asked that the cup of suffering that he was about to taste be taken from him. He ended his prayer with, ‘Not what I will, but what you will.’ And when the soldiers arrived with Judas to arrest him, he seemed to be reconciled to what must happen. His fear and sadness were changed by his prayers into strength and determination to see things through to the bitter end.

Today’s gospel ends. ‘How much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask.’ We may be praying for an end to wars in the world, we may be praying for healing for someone who is ill, we may be praying that our financial situation will improve.  What God ultimately gives to God's people is the gift of the Spirit, the gift of His presence with us. In this world, there is evil and suffering and death but we are gifted with the Spirit of God to help us get through all of that.

And God's Spirit does change us. We cannot truly pray for peace in the world without then going out into the world and acting peaceably. We cannot truly pray for peace in our families and then provoke a fight. We cannot truly pray for governments to do God's will and then vote without taking our faith into account as we do so, or not bother to vote at all.

Prayer gifts us with God's Spirit. God's Spirit living in us, strengthening us through the trials of our lives, and making us more deeply aware of the blessings we have been given.  God's Spirit living in us helps us to pray, Thy will be done.

Our prayers are never in vain.  Through prayer, we can find the strength and guidance needed to navigate life's challenges.

 “I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the night he was handed over, took bread, and after he had given thanks, broke it and said, “This is my body that is for you.  Do this in remembrance of me.” 1 Corinthians 11

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“He fed them with the finest wheat and satisfied them with honey from the rock.” Psalm 81:17

My dear Brothers and Sisters,

If you are reading this it means that you have come to church this weekend, hopefully for Mass. You have made the wonderful decision to take some time out of your busy week in order to make room for God in your life.  You are following the path set, not by any mere human being, but by God Himself, for you to find happiness in Him.  God does not need us to come here.  Nothing we could ever say or do could give Him enough praise.  Rather, He allows us to come here.  I hope that we are getting to the point in our spiritual lives in which we recognize that coming to holy Mass is NOT about just fulfilling a requirement, but rather something we honestly WANT to do.  We should feel honored that we have the chance to worship God and that God is willing to accept our worship.  Once one comes to appreciate the grandeur and glory of God the natural responses include wonder, awe, and ultimately, worship. 

It is wonderful that you are here.  However, being here is just a start.  It is my hope that everyone who comes here will benefit as much as possible.  Mass is not entertainment.  It is not about just sitting back and watching what unfolds before you.  Rather, Mass is an invitation to each and every one of us to allow God to engage us spiritually.  We are called to full, conscious, and active participation in the Mass.  Through doing so we develop a greater inward sense of the mysteries that are symbolized by the Mass – most especially the entering into the dying and rising of Jesus Christ.  I would like to give you some pointers about how to enter more fully into its mystery by taking each letter from the word MASS and expanding it into something you can remember.

M is for mute.  There are signs all over the church that remind us of the importance of silence at Mass.  If we are busy talking before Mass our minds will not be able to switch to the reverence necessary to get all out of Mass that we can.  God speaks to the heart that is silent enough to listen.  The church is a place of prayer.  We should make sure that all of our conversations in church are directed toward God.  Unless there is a genuine emergency, we should never raise our voices in church.  You may not be praying but someone else may be.  People are sometimes very polite and will not tell you they are praying.  We have the whole entire rest of the world in which we can speak as loud as we want.  Please allow church to be a place where people can find silence from all of the noise in this world.  The only sounds we should hear in church (except of course for children who are too young to understand) is our voices raised in prayer and song.

A is for actively engaging.  We need to engage all of our senses in our worship for it to be as meaningful as it can be.  When we are asked to open our hymnals we should do so and sing along.  Do not worry about what you sound like – God cherishes the heart not the voice.  We should pronounce the words of the prayers we recite loudly and slowly.  Rushed prayers lose their meaning and become mindlessly rote.  Our eyes should not be wandering around all over the church during Mass to notice Mrs. McGillicuddy’s hat or Bobby Lee’s cute children.  When prayers are recited by the priest from the chair, we should be looking at the chair.  When readings are read from the pulpit, we should be looking at the pulpit.  When the bread and wine are changed into the body and blood of Christ we should be kneeling (if physically possible) with our eyes daring to gaze upward toward our God.  We should try to listen as carefully as we can.  We can even take in the sweet smell of incense when it is used at Mass and have a sense of the sacredness of this beautiful moment of grace.

S is for sanitary. Every weekend we find dirty tissues left behind in church.  Do you know that someone actually has to clean them up?  If we are bringing cereal or some other type of treat into church for our small children it would be kind to clean up the mess afterward or better yet try to prevent the mess in the first place.  Actually, with the exception of needing to bribe very small children, food and drink have no place in church.  We absolutely should not be chewing gum in church and it is not appreciated when it is left behind.  In addition, it is amazing how people sometimes treat (or better said, mistreat) the hymnals we have, all of which have been donated.  If our children are the culprits it is only decent to stop them before they damage church property.  It is also unfortunate that our kneelers have been abused at times.  Please try to treat them gently.  Remember, this is the house of the Lord and this house belongs to all of us.  Let us treat it with the utmost respect.

S is for sacred.  Coming to church is always a sacred moment.  We need to treat it as such.  This means when gentlemen come to church they should take off their hats in respect.  Beach clothes should be worn at the beach not in church.  We do not want to dress in such a way that coming to church becomes an occasion of sin for some.  At the least I would say our shoulders and knees should be covered at all times while in church. 

If we all follow these simple guidelines we will find that our participation at the Holy Mass is far more meaningful and blessed.  God bless you and have a wonderful week.

Yours in Jesus through Mary,

Rev. Walter F. Kedjierski, Administrator

“Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive?  As many as seven times?  Jesus said to him, “Not seven times, but I tell you, seventy-seven times.” Matthew 18:21

My dear Brothers and Sisters,

It is true that sometimes other people can be cruel to us.  They can be incredibly insensitive to us and ignore us.  Other times they can actually do things purposely in order to harm us. It is part and parcel of life to deal with people who do not see things the way we see them.  Our Blessed Lord had to deal with people like that.  We cannot think that we should be exempt from what our Lord Himself went through for us.

Today I would like for us to think for a few moments about the issue of forgiveness.  Our Blessed Lord has asked us to forgive.  We pray that we might have the strength to forgive every time we say the “Our Father.”  When we seek out the forgiveness of God we pray “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”  I would like to invite everyone in our parish community, including myself, to exercise this gift of forgiveness toward those we find the most difficult to love.

Perhaps at times we become frustrated and believe that there are certain people who do not deserve our forgiveness.  Yet offering forgiveness is not only about helping the people who have wronged us.  In fact, our holding a grudge against someone else might even go unnoticed if that person chooses to ignore us. 

However, the grudges we hold are always known to us.  They actually burn a deep hole in our hearts.  Resentment is destructive to the soul.  I would urge everyone in our congregation to exercise forgiveness – not primarily for the sake of the person who offended us, although that would be a very good thing too, but for ourselves.  To choose to forgive someone else is to choose something really good for oneself.  It is choosing to become more fully the type of person God wishes us to be.  It is a freeing of our inner selves from the anxiety and possible hatred that a lack of forgiveness brings us.

Forgiving someone else does not mean becoming that person’s bosom buddy.  Nor does it mean that we have to allow that person to hurt us again.  We can learn from our bad experiences and protect ourselves without compromising the gift of forgiveness.  Forgiveness rather means not closing one’s heart off to another human being completely.  It means that we are not going to allow the harm others have caused us to sour our relationships with others.  It means that we are willing to move on and not obsess about things in the past.  Forgiveness is about leaving the past in the past and looking forward with hope to the future.  It means no longer losing sleep, becoming fatigued, or ranting and raving over what another has done to us.  It means moving on and allowing God to be the ultimate judge. 

Yours in Jesus through Mary,

Rev. Walter F. Kedjierski

PEACE, I LEAVE WITH YOU; MY PEACE I GIVE TO YOU

(John 14:27)

On this Memorial Day weekend, we remember with gratitude and honor the deceased men and women who died in service of our country, in service of us all. In many ways, we can say that they died, so we may have life and have it more abundantly in this beautiful nation – there is no greater love than that for sure. Remembering their sacrifices makes us grateful for the present and hopeful for the future.

It is worth noting that what they fought for is still worth fighting for today: PEACE! I want to ask us all: What have we done with the peace that Christ left us? Peace, I leave with you, says the Lord. It is time to reclaim it if we’ve lost it. True and lasting peace can only be obtained when served on a platter with truth, justice, and love. At the heart of it all, the Lord challenges us to something more profound: to love as He has loved us. This is exemplified in our sacrifices to seek reconciliation and forgiveness in our pursuit of peace.

Amid our troubled or even for untroubled hearts, you can find true peace that will never leave you. It is found in the Holy Eucharist. There is no peaceful place than where God dwells, which is in the Holy Eucharist, His most profound dwelling place on earth. ‘I am going away, and I will come back to you’ (John 14:28). Sure enough, He fulfilled that promise in the Eucharist even as we await His final return at the end of time.

Spend time with Him in adoration and receive Him at Mass in the Eucharist. For He desires to come to you and make His dwelling with you (John 14:23). This is your golden ticket to lasting peace; don’t lose it. It’s worked for me, and I bet it will for you, too.

Please join us as we host the Diocesan Eucharistic Congress on June 6 from 1 pm – 5 pm at Our Lady Queen of Martyrs and 7 pm – the next day, 6 am at St. Philip’s. More details to follow in the bulletin. What a gift, what an honor, to have Jesus pass our way so we can spend time with Him and allow Him to spend time with us.

Through the intercession of St. Francis, may Christ make us channels of His peace.

Peace, I leave with you!

Fr. Collins

~~all you need is love~~

DO YOU LOVE HIM?

The news of Fr. Holz’s passing saddens us. But the Good News of Christ’s rising and Fr. Holz’s love of the Lord and his ministry to us console us. The words of Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re during his homily at Pope Francis’ funeral Mass console me: 

We are gathered with sad hearts…. Yet, we are sustained by the certainty of faith, which assures us that human existence does not end in the tomb, but in the father’s house, in a life of happiness that will know no end. 

I hope this brings you consolation and hope too, not only with Fr. Holz’s passing, but with any loss you may be enduring – a loved one, a relationship, etc. May the Lord change our mourning into dancing (Psalm 30:12). 

The disciples, in their despair over the loss of their loved one, Jesus, went back to their former way of life. It took “the disciple whom Jesus loved” to recognize the Lord standing at the shore of their hearts, redirecting them to the right, to Himself, where their deepest longing will be met in abundance. It takes love to recognize the Lord. The feeling of His absence in our lives is in no way an excuse to be absent from Him, to go to our former way of life where emptiness dwells. He is always with us, and desires that we always be with Him and share His love with others. For love is a language every living creature understands. 

It is not enough to ‘recognize’ the Lord in our lives. We need to follow that with a ‘response.’ How great it would be if we were as immediate as Peter was to tuck in our garments and run in haste to express the sincerity of our love for the Lord and everything He loves; three times and always. Even in the face of sadness, may we rejoice like the disciples did that we have been found worthy to suffer for the sake of His Name (Acts 5:40).  

In the words of St. Catherine of Siena, we learn: 

So strong was the love of Jesus that neither the devil nor anyone else could dampened its perseverance. It was not dampened by the wrongs people did Him then, nor is it dampened by the wrongs we do Him now. It is not dampened by our ingratitude nor theirs. For we cannot by our maltreatment keep Him from loving us. No! He persevered to the point of death on the cross. This gentle loving only begotten Son of God revealed to us the Father’s will that we be made holy. This is the truth. And for this destiny God created us that we might be made holy. Open your minds eye, and you will see the blood of God’s son overflowing. For the piercing opening of His body and his heart has made it clear to us that God loves us without measure and wants nothing other than our good.  

DO YOU LOVE HIM? “Don’t say it, show it” (Mother Teresa). 

Let us unite with Holy Mother the Church this week in prayer, that God’s love may be showed to us yet again in giving us a Holy Father after His own heart. 

Fr. Collins  ~~all you need is love~~    

“Take nothing for your journey, no staff, no bag, nor bread, nor money, and do not have two tunics.” Luke 9:3

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

This has been quite a week!  Last week we entered into the drama and power of Holy Week.  We ritually walked with Jesus during the last days of his life among us.  We saw representatives of our community have their feet washed to remind us of the example of humble service Christ gave us.  We walked with the Blessed Sacrament in the darkness, remembering the darkness of the night Jesus was handed over.  We mourned at the cross and death of our Lord on Good Friday.  We waited at the tomb with patience on Holy Saturday, and then on Easter Sunday we shouted with a supernatural joy, “Alleluia! Christ is Risen!”  Both of our parishes were filled with parishioners and visitors.  Every Easter Sunday Mass had standing room only.  This Holy Week was a true blessing for us.

There was another event that impacted the entire Catholic world this week – the death of Pope Francis.  We have decorated special places in the church building to remember Pope Francis.  Please take the time to pray for the repose of his soul.  Also, let’s start praying for the College of Cardinals.  They will be called upon once again to vote for a new Supreme Pontiff.  May the next bishop of Rome be a man filled with wisdom, insight, and a compassionate heart.  May he lead the faithful with full confidence in God’s love.

I have another piece of information to share with you from the diocese.  This week I received a phone call from the Vicar for Clergy.  Effective the last Wednesday of June, I will be leaving our parishes of Our Lady Queen of Martyrs and St. Philip Neri in order to assume the role of pastor of St. Dominic’s Parish in Oyster Bay.  Given the parish is one of only two in the diocese that not only has an elementary school but also a high school, this will be a special opportunity for me to try to help young people grow in their faith.    Our parishes here will also be receiving a new pastor, Father Adrian McHugh, who is currently the pastor of St. Aidan Parish in Williston Park.  Father McHugh is a delightful fellow and I am sure you will be edified by his leadership.  Father Collins will be remaining here for the next year in order to offer a certain amount of continuity for our parishes.  I suspect after next year he too will join the ranks of pastor.  What a gift he has been to so many, myself included.

It has been an absolute delight to walk this journey of faith with you this past year.  The way in which so many of you worked to make our Holy Week and Easter liturgies beautiful was edifying to me.  Thank you all for all of the ways you’ve helped our parishes to grow.  The faith in God you shared with me will always be close to my heart.

Faithfully yours in Christ,

Father Walter

“For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve.” 1 Cor. 15: 4-5

My dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Happy Easter!  What a blessed time this is to welcome the warmer weather and most especially to join with all creation in a hymn of thanksgiving to God for destroying the power of death and darkness for all of us through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

It seems as if everything around us is joining us in this hymn of praise.  We are witnessing the spring flowers start to bloom once again.  The leaves have returned to the trees.  Creation itself enters into a certain death every winter and a certain resurrection every spring.  In the midst of these natural events our Lord Jesus Christ dies for all of us, and rises again to grant us everlasting life.  The day will come when these earthly bodies die, but our souls are always in the safekeeping of God, and at the resurrection on the last day will be reunited to our bodies once again. 

This is truly a time of rejuvenation and praise.  I am very glad that you have taken the time to join us in worship today.  As joyous as today is, let it not be lost to us that here in the parish every Sunday, in a sense, is Easter Sunday.  All of the Masses we enter into are celebrations of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.  When we gather together for Mass we hear Jesus speak his own words in Sacred Scripture, and also, we receive the risen and living Body and Blood of Christ in the Eucharist.  He has invited us to feed on him as our “daily bread.”  What a blessing beyond words we have been given.

It is my hope and the hope of all here that we will see you often.  Know that your parish family is always here for you.  We are a community of love and peace because we are a community that is centered in Jesus Christ.  May the good Lord bless you, and let us join together today to proclaim once again: Christ is Risen! Alleluia!

Faithfully yours in Christ,

Reverend Walter F. Kedjierski

Administrator

“Jesus looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the treasury; and he saw a poor widow put in two copper coins.  And he said, “Truly, I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them; for they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all the living that she had.” (Luke 21:1-4)

My dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Jesus our Lord lived his life as a “truth-teller.”  He saw what was going on around him, and when he witnessed hypocrisy he called it out.  This was not out of a desire to condemn, after all our Lord did say, “I have come not to condemn the world but to save it.”  Rather, Jesus called out hypocrisy because He wanted the best for the people He was accusing.  He wanted them to stop pretending to be something they were not, and instead to legitimately become who they were created to be.  He hoped that they would rise to the challenge.  He invited them to stop hiding behind a façade of false humility and instead to truly live holy lives in according with God’s will.

Jesus saw the poor widow in the passage I cited above and knew what was in her heart as well as her purse.  She clearly believed in the Temple and trusted in the living God it honored.  She felt called to give, not the extra money she had, but all of it.  In theory, this widow could have kept one of the small coins for herself and her own care, and only given one to the Temple.  Yet she wanted to give it all.  She wanted to be able to totally rely on God for her care.  Not all of us are called to this radical act of self-giving, but some of us have always been.  We can think about those men and women religious, the sisters and brothers who taught us in school or ministered to us in the parish in various ways, and how they chose to voluntarily, on their own accord, take on vows of poverty.  They do not own anything, but all they have belongs to their communities, ultimately belonging to God.  What a wonderful example of self-sacrifice they offer to us. 

Another example of self-sacrifice we’ve had throughout the centuries of the Church is that of martyrdom.  These holy women and men were called by God to give their whole selves, even their very bodies, in sacrifice for their love of God.  It is amazing to think about how so many went through so much so that we might be able to know and follow Jesus today.

All of us, as Christians, are called to follow Christ, who laid down his life for the salvation of the world.  This necessarily involves self-sacrifice.  Genuine giving involves seeking nothing in return, choosing never to invoke our gifts as a reason to demand anything.  It involves seeing a need and responding in love.  Sometimes the needs before us might require the gifts we have.  I know of an electrician who volunteers to help elderly people who cannot afford to pay for such services.  Sometimes the needs are financial or material.  Only you and God know the blessings you have received.  I would encourage you  to seriously think about how you can do your part.  There are many people in need around us, and our parish also has need for both volunteers to keep us afloat and also the funds necessary to pay the bills (like the insurance, the heating, the electricity, the water, and others) which always come to our office.  Many thanks for all of your generosity in the past and I hope that the Lord abundantly blesses you so that you might be generous well into the future.

Faithfully yours in Christ,

Father Walter Kedjierski

Administrator

“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?”

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Lent is a time of intense self examination. So many times we can observe the faults and failings of others, but it can be challenging to notice our own shortcomings.  Meanwhile, the only person we can really only judge is ourselves.  While we are with ourselves twenty four hours a day, seven days a week, and have at least some sense of what  is going on within us, we do not have that same vantage point for anyone else. We have not walked in their shoes, and Jesus has urged us not to judge lest we be judged.  We should take the time, every day if possible, to examine ourselves and where we have fallen short of the love Jesus has called us to live.  Yet we should not do so with the eyes of evil, the eyes that are quick to condemn and slow to show mercy.  Instead, we should do so with the compassionate eyes of Jesus, who is saddened by our sins because they separate us from His love, but who also gives us the chance to change, to repent, and to live a new life.

We should, with all of our strength, fight against the presence of sin and sinful attachments in our lives, because of our love of God and our desire to please God.  Sometimes sins can become habits that dig deep into our souls, and like weeds with very deep roots, it can be a challenge to totally dig them up.  St. Ignatius of Loyola, that great master of spiritual life who founded the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits) has offered some good advice for ridding ourselves of sinful attachments.  Let us say, for example, I want to stop using foul language, which has become a bit of a habit.  The first step, St. Ignatius of Loyola would say, would be to gently tap on one’s heart in an inconspicuous manner, each time we utter a profane word, and under our breaths offer a brief prayer of sorry like, “Jesus, have mercy.”  Being aware of how often we fall should help us to rise up from our sinfulness. Another way is to take a simple card, and write a large G on the first line, and then progressively write smaller Gs for the next six lines.  The Gs represent the word “guilty” and the seven lines represent the seven days of the week.  On each day of the week, when we fall into the sin we are trying to rid ourselves of, we place a mark next to the G of that day. The goal is to eventually have less and less marks, to the point where we have none.  After a week or two of no marks at all, one can offer a prayer of thanksgiving to God for freeing us from that sin, but also commit oneself to remaining vigilant in the future.  I have found both of these methods to be helpful in my own spiritual journey, and I hope that they are helpful for you too.

Lent is swiftly coming to an end.  We’ve had the chance to walk this year’s Lent together as a parish family.  Let us remember each other in prayer in a special way as we close out our Lents, so that we might fulfill our resolutions and experience more fully the joy and freedom of the Risen Christ this Easter.

Faithfully yours in Christ,

Rev. Walter F. Kedjierski

Administrator

Dear Brothers and Sisters at Our Lady Queen of Martyrs Parish,

I hope that you had the chance to participate in at least a portion of the Lenten mission we had this week.  Msgr. Fink did an outstanding job providing tools that can help us to have a truly holy and fruitful Lenten season.  Many thanks to Father Collins and all those who helped to bring Msgr. Fink to us and arrange our time together.

This week I am writing to you, brothers and sisters in Christ at OLQM, to update you on the finances of the parish.  On the opposite page you will observe a summary of the parish’s financial situation over the course of the past year.  In order to fit it in the bulletin it is generalized.  If you are a registered parishioner and you would like further elaborations please do not hesitate to reach out to the parish office and we will be glad to meet with you.  The finance committee met last week in order to discuss our finances and plan for the future.

First of all, you’ll notice that we ran quite a deficit this year ($201,662).  Unfortunately there were a number of parishioners in the past who were very generous in offering yearly gifts to the parish who are no longer with us, either moving or completing their lives in this world.  It seems as if past budgets relied on these gifts, but now we have to move on and admit we are going to need more help with the daily operations of the parish.  The finance committee agreed that additional fundraising efforts are necessary.  Soon a survey will be sent out to all parishioners to discern how best to help raise funds for our parish.

That being said, there is also some good news to report.  The Golf Outing, our annual fundraiser, earned more than we originally anticipated, bringing a total of $77,938.  Many thanks are due to Frank Fiore and his team for the outstanding job!  Secondly, we had the unfortunate situation of the pastor’s quarters  flooding (which necessitated my move out of the rectory to St. Philip’s) and damaging the floors and running through the ceiling on the first floor of the rectory.  The good news is that our insurance has just compensated us $51,000.00 for repairs so we are able to repair the damage without going into parish reserves.  Finally, we can be thankful that we have a good staff that has committed itself to trying to find ways to cut expenses as much as we can yet at the same time maintain our valuable ministries, education programs, social outreach and sacramental life.

Finally, there is an important piece of information I need to share with you.  Many of you are aware that the Diocese of Rockville Centre entered a Chapter 11 Bankruptcy process in October 2020.  Bankruptcy offered the possibility of equitable compensation and some measure of healing for survivors, while allowing the Church to continue the saving mission of Jesus Christ by, first and foremost, securing the future of our parishes.  The Diocese, as well as every parish and ministry, made a contribution to the settlement in order to accomplish these goals.  To resolve all past claims of abuse of minors and to secure the future of the Church’s ministries throughout Long Island, it was necessary that every parish participate in the Chapter 11 Bankruptcy process.  This was to ensure that no historical claims could place parishes or schools at risk in t he future.  Our Parish contributed $177,765.00 out of its reserves to the settlement of all cases.  The cost of bringing current or potential future historical cases against our Parish to trials, especially if judgments were eventually rendered, would have been devastating to the work and future of Our Lady Queen of Martyrs parish.  Due to our participation and contribution that has been prevented and we have been able to protect our parish now and for the future.

Please join me, first in prayer for our parish, and secondly, in discerning ways in which our parish can become more financially stable.  God bless you and thank you for all you do for our parish family!

Faithfully yours in Christ,

Father Walter Kedjierski

My dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

When we began our Lenten observances on Ash Wednesday, joined by so many walking this journey with us, we began with this prayer:

Grant, O Lord, that we may begin with holy fasting this campaign of Christian service, so that, as we take up battle against spiritual evils, we may be armed with weapons of self-restraint.

Isn’t it interesting that we begin this solemn season with such militaristic terms like “campaign,” “battle” and “weapons?” There is something behind this sort of terminology being employed at the start of Lent. Lent is a battle, there are forces fighting with us and there are forces fighting against us.

St. Paul made this clear in his letter to the Ephesians, chapter 6, verse 12 “our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” He understood that there were evil spirits who hate God and delight in causing us to break relationship with God because God’s love for us is so great.

Those spirits don’t usually manifest themselves in clear, obvious ways, but clandestinely and slowly. Being constant at prayer and in a state of grace are the surest ways to keep guard over these evils that can hurt us. As it says in the prayer, our weapons in this war are the weapons of self restraint. Fasting, prayer, almsgiving – these are the best tools to use as weapons for this war. It is an important war, because it is the war for our very souls. At the same time, we do not fight this battle alone. God has given to each of us a guardian angel to aid us (Matthew 18:10) and patron saints to whom we can turn in our struggle.

At the same time, Lent is also a battle with ourselves. We fight against our own weaknesses and sinful attachments. In his same letter to the Ephesians St. Paul wrote “I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace”(4:1-2).

We must not allow ourselves to be dominated by our instincts or our appetites. Instead, we are called to “let go and let God” be the center of our lives. As the world around us changes and displays a certain instability, we are called to allow Christian values and the timeless nature of God be our stability and our peace. We must rely on our weapons of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving to help us gain victory in this battle.

When all is said and done, Jesus has won the battle. The question now becomes, on whose side do we find ourselves? Let us always choose Jesus, so that He might lead us to the riches of eternal life.

Faithfully yours in Christ,

Rev. Water F. Kedjierski
Administrator

“When you have done all that is commanded you, say, “We are unworthy servants; we have only done what is our duty.” Luke 17:10

My dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Today at the 12 Noon Mass at OLQM we are going to be celebrating the gifts and blessings our Pastor Emeritus, Father Robert Holz, has generously shared with the Church.  His years of faithful service have been a blessing to so many.  Think about all the souls who have been changed because he laid down his life as a vessel of God’s grace – baptizing children and adults, hearing confessions, celebrating the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, anointing the sick and dying before they left this world – it has been quite a journey! 

I only came to know Father Holz this year, but so many people I know and trust shared with me what a fine priest he is, and after living with him for a few months I now wholeheartedly agree.  Not only does he bring with him a humility that magnifies Christ, but also a very deep faith that quickly becomes contagious, and also a very pleasant sense of humor!  If you’re unable to come to the Mass to wish him well, please feel free to drop him a line.  Just send your notes to our parish offices and we will be sure to forward all of them to him.  I have no doubt that the prayers and sacrifices he will offer for our parishes this Lent will bear tremendous fruit.

In thinking about Father Holz, I began to think about the gift of the priesthood of Jesus Christ.  Jesus calls certain individuals like Father Holz, Father Collins, and I to follow Him as priests.  While everyone is called to follow Jesus, we have been called in a particular way to draw close to Him and see the ways He works in others’ lives through preaching the Word of God, the Sacraments, and leadership in the parish or other institutions to which we are assigned. 

 It is such a tremendous gift to be called.  Being given this special opportunity to serve is nothing but a blessing.  When I was in the seminary I imagined that living the priesthood would be a wonderful experience.  After I was ordained and actually started to live the priesthood, I discovered for the first time in my life that my imagination in no way captured how wonderful the reality would be.  There is a joy unlike any other that comes from following Christ and acting in His person as His priest.   

Among the many blessings is the blessing of meeting truly heroic people like Father Holz and so many others.  I believe I’ve had the chance to meet many people who, even though they didn’t realize it, really are living saints.  It was because I am a priest that they allowed me to catch a glimpse of the beauty of their spiritual lives and I am so thankful.  I never cease to be inspired by the goodness of humanity when I meet such souls.

We need to pray to the Lord that more people will be open to the Lord’s call.  As two parishes sharing priests, we should be particularly aware of this need.  In some places people even have to do without Mass on Sunday due to the lack of priests.  When they gather for their Communion Services the Church requires them each time to pray for more priests so they can have access to Mass again.  We need our young families to be open to the possibility of one of the children becoming a priest.  Someone right next to us just might be called but doesn’t realize it yet.  Let’s encourage them with their discernment.  A sign of a healthy Catholic parish is its capacity to foster vocations to the priesthood and religious life.  Let us all do our part to help spread the faith by cultivating a culture that is open to encouraging young people to accept God’s calling to serve Him as a priest, as a religious sister or brother, or in other ministries of the Church.

Faithfully yours in Christ,

Father Walter F. Kedjierski 

“Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain.” John 12:23

My dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

            It is hard to believe, but Lent has once again come upon us.  This special season in the liturgical year brings with it a special workshop for the soul.  Lent is like going to the gym – at first, it can feel draining and exhausting, maybe even a little painful, but in the end we gain so much for our health, in this case, spiritual health as opposed to physical health.  The more we put into our Lenten practices, the greater will our joy be on Easter Sunday when we can announce with the angels, “He is Risen!,” “He is Risen” is my own life in a particularly intense way!

            What have we chosen to give up?  One has to be careful in selecting the things one will do without.  On the one hand, we might try to get ourselves off easy, perhaps giving up sweets like we’ve done every other year, and not challenging ourselves to do more this year.  Lent isn’t about following the regular pattern of life, it is about disrupting that pattern so that our hearts are more prepared to make room for God.  Yet on the other hand, we might try to give up too much.  Giving up all forms of coffee for the entire season might be an impossible task for one who has become dependent upon it as the fuel for the morning, but maybe it would be better to give up adding sugar to it. 

St. Philip Neri was once asked by one of his brothers in the community if he could wear a hair shirt for his penance.  A hair shirt is a particularly rough piece of clothing that is incredibly uncomfortable.  Obviously he wanted a particularly tough penance.  St. Philip Neri made it a bigger challenge than he expected.  Although a hair shirt is meant to be worn inside of one’s clothing, St. Philip told this soul to wear the hair shirt on the outside.  Horrified, the man exclaimed, “I’ll be the laughing stock of all around me.”  St. Philip explained to him that what he really needed to abstain from was his pride, and wearing the hair shirt outside was a perfect solution.  Very difficult sacrifices can be twisted to serve our pride.  We need to watch for that.

          The old saying goes, you can’t take it with you, and all of the things of this world that give us comfort and security will eventually no longer be under our control.  We believe, however, there is something we can take with us, namely, the ways we have lovingly used the blessings we have received to serve others.  The more we give, not only of our material possessions, but also of our particular talents, the more treasure we build for ourselves in heaven.  May this Lent help us, more than ever before, to die to ourselves and our own selfishness and rise in the self-giving unconditional love of Christ poured out for all of the world.

Faithfully yours in Christ,

Father Walter Kedjierski

Administrator

“Peace be with you.” John 20:19

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

            Those four words – “peace be with you” – are words that are central to the Gospel message.  They were the first words our Lord spoke to Peter and the other apostles after he rose from the dead.  The Risen Christ continually greeted the apostles in his appearances with those words, “peace be with you.”  They can serve as Jesus’ parting message to all of us after He left this world for now and ascended to the right hand of the Father.  Jesus has offered us a good reason to be “at peace.”  “I am with you always, even to the end of the world” (Mt. 28:20).  Although we may not always perceive him – perhaps because we are distracted by the world, or because we are in pain with our emotional grief or even physical suffering, like those who were walking away from Jerusalem on the road to Emmaus.  Despite their failure to recognize he was walking right beside them he nevertheless drew near.  Jesus still draws close to us, even if we don’t always recognize him.

            Isn’t it amazing that of all the words he could have chosen to say, Jesus’ first words to Peter and the other apostles were “peace be with you?”  He would have been completely justified in first asking, “where were you when I took up my cross?”  He could have pointed out, “You said you’d even die for me, but you ran away instead.”  Jesus could have easily just ignored them and closed his heart to them after his betrayal. Yet he made it a point to instead come directly to them.  Despite everything, his love for his friends was still there.  Jesus is a friend who is always faithful.  We can always count on him, even if he can’t always count on us. How amazing to think that through Jesus we have the chance to be “friends of God!”  He is the best friend one could ever hope for.  How can this friendship that even death cannot extinguish not give to us he gifts of abiding peace and joy?

            All of life – everything – centers around this peace of Christ.  The universe and creation are not mere accidents. It was not by chance that all of us ultimately long for the peace that only friendship with Christ can bring.  All that exists – everything – has its meaning and purpose in Christ. Let us live in this peace of Christ and freely share it with others.

Faithfully yours in Christ,

Father Walter F. Kedjierski

Administrator

MILL POND REFLECTIONS

LOVE ANYWAY…

If you’ve noticed, I love to sign my reflections with “Love is all you need.” Sorry, I am not changing it; hope you get used to that.

A great sense of fulfillment comes from being loved and bringing love to others. St. Paul says: “If I speak in human and angelic tongues but do not have love, I am a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal” (1 Corinthians 13:1). Put simply, we are nothing without love. Yet, how has something so beautiful, so fulfilling, and so indispensable become a cause for disappointment, regret, and hurt for many? Has lack of love become the greatest poverty we face this day? We may be good at receiving love, but how good are we at giving it?

For every tree cut down, at least three must be planted to improve our environment. What a better place our world and our families would be if we practiced this daily where for every ‘one’ love received, at least ‘three’ are given. It is true that one cannot give what he/she does not have. So how about we allow ourselves to know and receive more and more of God’s love for us, especially through the sacraments? For love is not just what God gives. It is who God is: “God is love, and whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him” (1 John 4:16). Our every thought, word, and deed should have love’s seal on it.

Today’s gospel reads: “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you” (Luke 6:27-28). It is okay to echo what Jesus’ disciples once said: “This saying is hard; who can accept it?” (John 6:60). Yet, what an awesome opportunity to love as God loves. No excuse is good enough not to love. And don’t be the reason someone might find it so difficult to love. “This is how all will know that you are my disciples…” says the Lord (John 13:35).

But how can we love, even our enemies? The three action words I pick from today’s gospel show us the way: “do good,” “bless,” and “pray.” Be faithful in these things no matter what and your jug of love will never run dry.

Let us take a clue from Mother Teresa’s poem and love anyway:

People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered; Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives; Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies; Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you; Be honest and frank anyway.

What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight; Build anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous; Be happy anyway.

The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow; Do good anyway.

Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough; Give the world the best you've got anyway.

You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and your God;

It was never between you and them anyway.

In many ways, our Holy Father, Pope Francis, has been a beacon of God’s love for all people. With gratitude, let us pour our hearts out in love, and pray for his healing.

Fr. Collins

~~~love is all you need~~~