Next Activity for the Young Adult Group at St. Clement's Church

For those reading this blog in the area of Saratoga Springs, NY . . .

The next activity for the St. Clement’s Young Adult Group will be a Movie Night on Sunday, November 16 at 8:30 in Our Lady's Chapel. The film Bella will be shown.

"Sooner or later every one of us will face an irreversible moment that will change our lives forever. If it hasn't happened to you yet...it will. BELLA is a true love story about how one day in New York City changed three people forever."

The Young Adult Group is open to all single and married people in their twenties, and thirties (and yes, even those in their forties!). For more information contact Fr. Paul Borowski via email at pborowski@stclementschurch.com

Proclamations of Abraham Lincoln (1863)

From a Proclamation appointing a National Day of Fasting written on March 30, 1863 by President Abraham Lincoln

It is the duty of nations as well as of men to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God; to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon; and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations are blessed whose God is the Lord.

We know that by His divine law, nations, like individuals, are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world. May we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war which now desolates the land may be a punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins, to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole people?

We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven; we have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity; we have grown in numbers, wealth and power as no other nation has ever grown.

But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us.

From a Proclamation of Thanksgiving written on October 3, 1863 by President Abraham Lincoln

It has seemed to me fit and proper that God should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November as a day of Thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father Who dwelleth in the heavens.

Thanksgiving Day 2008

Thursday, November 27, 2008
St. Clement’s Catholic Church; Saratoga Springs, NY

Sirach 50: 22 – 24
I Chronicle 29: 10bc, 11, 12
1 Corinthians 1: 3 – 9
Luke 17: 11 – 19

On a stormy night on Lake Michigan in 1860 a boating mishap turned into an enormous tragedy. A side-wheeler steamboat was rammed by another boat. The steamboat was sinking fast. It was about a mile offshore from the village of Winnetka, Illinois.

Out of 393 passengers on board, 279 drowned. Several of the survivors owed their lives to the superhuman efforts of one young man.

A young Methodist theological student named Edward Spencer, from his seminary room witnessed the tragedy and heard the piercing screams for help from people who were drowning.

As the survivors were screaming for help, he plunged into the lake and swam to the drowning people. He brought one person to shore, and then, he would dive back into the cold waters to rescue another. He pushed his body beyond human endurance, and after he had dragged the seventeenth person to safety, he collapsed on the lakeshore.

When he regained consciousness in a hospital, the nerves in his legs were so completely damaged that he could never walk again. He remained an invalid for the rest of his life.

On his eightieth birthday, someone asked him to relate his most vivid memory of that dreadful day. He replied sadly, "Not one of the seventeen returned to thank me."

These are two of the simplest words of the English language. They are two words that from our youngest years we are taught. When we received our first Christmas gift from a relative or family friend, there was our mom or dad asking us: “And what do you say?”

And yet often they are the words that we first forget how to say. We make excuses. “Well, they were expected to do that for me or give that to me – no need for me to say thanks.” We tell ourselves that the other person knows how we feel. “They know how grateful I am, there’s no need to say it.” We take the moral high road. “They shouldn’t expect thanks, they should just be Christian.”

“Ten were cleansed, were they not? Where are the other nine?” And yet, we wait until the fourth Thursday in the month of November. Words that should flow from our mouths daily come slowly to our lips on this autumn day. We don’t like to admit that we are in need of anyone else. We can’t admit that we are weak. We can’t admit that we are dependent on anyone or anything else. We have been given life. We have been rescued. And yet, and yet ... The most vivid memory of that dreadful day for Edward Spencer: “Not one of the seventeen returned . . .”

There is a legend about a tyrant who had an ironclad grip over all parts of his kingdom, except for one frustrating area. He was unable to destroy the people's belief in God.

He summoned his counselors and put the question to them: "Where can I hide God so that the people will end up forgetting him?"

One counselor suggested that God be hidden on the dark side of the moon. This proposal was debated for some time, but voted down because it was believed that one day scientists would discover a means of space travel and God would end being found again.

Another advisor to the tyrant came up with idea of burying God beneath the depths of the ocean floor. This was voted down for basically the same reason - it was felt that scientific advancement would lead to the discovery of God even beneath the depths of the ocean floor.

Finally the oldest and wisest of the counselors had a flash of insight. "I know", he said, "why don't we hide God where no one will ever think of finding him?" He explained, "If we hide God in the ordinary events of people's everyday lives they'll never find him." And so it was done - and they say that people are still looking for God - even today.

We are a people of glitz and glamour. We love the big show. The more lights, the more special effects the better we believe it should be.

The things that I am most grateful for, but I often take for granted are the ordinary things of day to day life. Yes, when I’ve seen the Grand Canyon or the majestic peaks of the Alps in Austria or the beautiful sunset from the rectory on the island of St. Croix I’ve uttered a prayer of gratitude to the maker of the heavens and the earth.

However, one past Thanksgiving time when I was working with the Young Adult leaders of Bethpage we were asked to create a list of what we are thankful for. We were challenged to come up with one hundred items. Some of the easy things leaped to my mind: my life, my faith, my vocation, my friends. But as I did this exercise again this week I listened closely to my heart my pen began to write down some things that many might not consider a blessing and some might even consider a curse.

Morning coffee; fresh baked chocolate chip cookies; Hot water in the shower; a few moments of quiet in the chapel in the afternoon; memories of Portland, ME; Music – any type of music from classical to Bruce Springsteen to Jimmy Buffet to James Taylor; Golf Clubs that don’t get as much use as they would like to get; Mornings at West End, NJ and evenings at Esopus, NY

My God is in these things – and too many more that I can list right now or that I can even remember to list when I get the chance. He’s present in my Redemptorist vocation which echoes the words of St. Alphonsus who says: “The paradise of God, so to say, is the heart of man.”

One afternoon a shopper at the local mall felt the need for a coffee break. She bought herself a little bag of cookies and put them in her shopping bag. She then got in line for coffee, found a place to sit at one of the crowded tables, and then taking the lid off her coffee and taking out a magazine she began to sip her coffee and read. Across the table from her a man sat reading a newspaper. After a minute or two she reached out and took a cookie. As she did, the man seated across the table reached out and took one too. This put her off, but she did not say anything. A few moments later she took another cookie. Once again the man did so too. Now she was getting a bit upset, but still she did not say anything. After having a couple of sips of coffee she once again took another cookie. So did the man. She was really upset by this - especially since now only one cookie was left. Apparently the man also realized that only one cookie was left. Before she could say anything he took it, broke it in half, offered half to her, and proceeded to eat the other half himself. Then he smiled at her and, putting the paper under his arm, rose and walked off. Was she steamed. Her coffee break ruined, already thinking ahead of how she would tell this offense to her family, she folded her magazine, opened her shopping bag, and there discovered her own unopened bag of cookies.

We think that we have it all together. We at times buy into the ideas of our present American society that says: “Mine.” We have forgotten where it all comes from; we have forgotten how to share.

God is the giver of all good gifts. He is the Creator and he shares freely with us. There is nothing that God asks for in return. Love that’s freely given, wants to freely be received. And yet, we are possessive of the gifts that God has bestowed upon us. We gather them in and fence them off from others.

The gift you have received give as a gift. Give without asking for in return. Share without expecting a pat on a back.

Let me return back to today's Gospel. Why did only one cleansed leper return to thank Jesus? The following are nine suggested reasons why the nine did not return:

Leper #1 "This is fantastic, I'm just so excited."
Leper #2 "I've got to hurry home to tell my family."
Leper #3 "Well, it's about time God answered my prayer!"
Leper #4 "This is great, for the first time ever I will be able to hug my son."
Leper #5 "This must be a coincidence; He never even touched me. How can I know for sure it was God who did this?"
Leper #6 "I'm going to call the publisher, this story will sell!"
Leper #7 "Man, I've got a lot of making up to do, an education to get, a business to start."
Leper #8 "Maybe this is just a brief 'remission'; I'm going to 'wait and see' if this healing really sticks."
Leper #9 "But Jesus said go to the priest, if he confirms it, then we'll come back to give thanks."
In contrast to all these, Leper #10 said, "You can do whatever you want, I'm going right back to give thanks to the One who healed me."

The fourth Thursday of November we are the Tenth Leper. We come back to the one who has saved us and we say “Thank You.” However, often times we are like the other nine –busy with our lives, taking credit for our own successes or making excuses for why it is finally our time to shine. Let us continue to Thank God this day as we continue with our Eucharist. Let us sing God’s praises as we continue to raise our voices in song. Let us be of grateful heart as we share fellowship and food with one another after this Liturgy. But the real test is whether the celebration of Thanksgiving continues tomorrow, or better yet Monday, when we all get back to our regular lives and see how we respond – like the other nine or like the Tenth leper, still thankful.

Commemoration of All Souls

There is a poem that I often share at the start of a funeral homily. Today as we remember All Souls I would simple like to share that poem with you in my Blog this week. Let us always remember those who have gone before us in faith and pray for our loved ones and all the souls in purgatory, especially during this month of November.

I am standing upon the seashore. A ship at my side spreads her white sails to the morning breeze and starts for the blue ocean.

She is an object of beauty and strength. I stand and watch her until at length she hangs like a speck of white cloud just where the sea and sky come to mingle with each other.

Then, someone at my side says; "There, she is gone!" "Gone where?" Gone from my sight. That is all. She is just as large in mast and hull and spar as she was when she left my side and she is just as able to bear her load of living freight to her destined port. Her diminished size is in me, not in her.

And just at the moment when someone at my side says, "There, she is gone!" There are other eyes watching her coming, and other voices ready to take up the glad shout; "Here she comes!" And that is dying. (Henry Van Dyke)

"I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11: 25 — 26)