“Christians have always understood that the commandment, ‘Thou shall not kill,’ applies to all life, including life in the womb,”

Pope Francis

2021 March for LIfe

 This year's National March for Life took a different form as a result of the pandemic. One of our high schools attended the celebration at our diocesan cathedral, Saint Agnes, in Rockville Centre. Over 70 students travelled to the cathedral for a tour, Mass, Adoration, rosary and March. 

On one of most blistery days of the winter the enthusiasm for life was heard throughout Rockville Centre. Hope reigns.

Blessed William Joseph Chaminade

 

Blessed William Joseph Chaminade

 “Baptism and faith cause the life of Jesus Christ to begin in us, and it is thus that we are, so to say, conceived of the Holy Spirit; but we must, like the Savior, be born of the Virgin Mary.”

Blessed William Joseph Chaminade

 . William Joseph Chaminade

“As long as you are on earth you will have problems. Go with simplicity. Do not worry about the troublesome or disconcerting things you will experience. Do your duties. Try to please God and keep your peace.”

Blessed William Joseph Chaminade

 

“It seems to me that we must not become discouraged if we encounter some obstacle in the way of necessary change. Never has change been done and never will it be done without difficulty. With patience we will come to the end of all.”

Our Blessed Founder - January 22

 

“Ours is a work, a magnificent work. If it is universal, it is because we are missionaries of Mary, who has said to us, ‘Do whatever he tells you.’ Each one of us has received from the Blessed Virgin a commission to work at the salvation of our brothers and sisters in the world.”

Blessed William Joseph Chaminade
Feastday - January 22

Marianist Monday

January 2021 

My dear friends from Chaminade, Kellenberg Memorial, and St. Martin de Porres Marianist School,

Happy New Year!

We certainly pray and hope that 2021 will be a better year for all than 2020! 

As I look forward to this new year, I suggest one word that I think would be helpful for all of us in 2021 – reconciliation. We live in a very fragmented world. You may remember back in high school, you pledged allegiance daily to “. . . one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” Sad to say, we no longer have one nation. Our country is no longer under God. We are deeply divided, and we have become more and more aware that liberty and justice do not exist for all. We are also painfully aware that our Church also suffers deep divisions. And while for many families the pandemic was a time for drawing closer to one another, for others it was a time of further separation and alienation. In addition, many of us have struggled to be at peace with ourselves. Witness the tremendous number of deaths from suicides and overdoses, particularly among young people. 

The words of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn express the depth of our dilemma: If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them! But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart? 

The beautiful feast of Christmas, which we have just finished celebrating, marks the opening moment in the drama of grace that enables us to overcome the alienation from God wrought by our first parents, Adam and Eve, and to restore again that harmony and love among us that was lost in the Garden of Eden. The angels sang at Christmas “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among people of good will.” The ordering of these words is important – first glory to God, then peace on earth. We cannot be at peace with one another if we have not strengthened our relationship with God. Simply put, become one with God, and then the path to harmony with others will be more readily opened. In the Second Reconciliation Canon, as we address our prayer to our heavenly Father, we acknowledge the power of our heavenly Father to change our hardened hearts: . . . by your Spirit, you move human hearts, that enemies may speak to each other again, adversaries join hands, and peoples seek to meet together. By the working of your power, it comes about, O Lord, that hatred is overcome by love, revenge gives way to forgiveness, and discord is changed to mutual respect. 

The words of Mahatma Gandhi provide a good guideline for our efforts to bring about reconciliation in the world today: “You must be the change you wish to see in the world.” So, with these words in mind, here are some questions for you, that might lead to some New Year’s resolutions. Glory to God • Do I attend Mass each weekend? • Do I pray every day in the morning and evening, perhaps using the Magnificat as a source of prayer? Peace on Earth to People of Good Will • Is there something in my past that I cannot forgive myself for? Perhaps, the Sacrament of Reconciliation or sharing with a friend would release you from this burden. • Have I asked for forgiveness from anyone I might have offended in the past? A difficult task to do, but the word forgiveness itself has embodied in it give before, i.e., make the first gesture in a relationship where there is alienation and conflict. • Can I change my patterns of demonizing others with whom I disagree and replace my demonizing thoughts, words, and deeds with kindness and openness to the humanity of the other person? • Can I build up others with words of positive affirmation rather than tear them down with negativity, sarcasm, and snarky comments? • Can I increase kind words and kind deeds in my life, perhaps even carrying out occasional random acts of kindness? 

Pope Francis has told you young people that you are not the future of the Church; you are the Church! You are daily building up the New Jerusalem, come down from heaven. May you open your hearts to the promptings of the Holy Spirit and echo Mary’s words of acceptance: “Be it done unto me according to your will.” 

On behalf of all my Marianist Brothers, 

Fr. Garrett Long, S.M.

The Lord is with us

The Lord is present to us and present in many ways. The Lord is with us in Word and Sacrament. The Lord is with us when we are gathered to pray. The Lord is with us in the poor and needy and comes to us in moments of quiet prayer and reflection.

 

We Three King - 4

Saint Luke tells us in his Gospel, “Suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in high heaven, peace on earth to those on whom his favor rests.’”

There is no reason for us to be sentimental with these angels, for the typical reaction to one in the Bible is fear. We are dealing here with some fearsome creatures.

We have translated these fearsome creatures as “host” or “multitude,” sometimes even an army. And Caesar Augustus was able to dominate the world because he had the biggest army. But Saint Luke is saying that the baby king actually possesses a bigger army, though it is one that fights, not with the weapons of the world, but with those of heaven.

“Come, you who are blessed by my Father"

The teachings of the great prophets and Jesus will come to pass in time and place: as more and more of us commit to becoming missionary disciples, the truth, the goodness, the love, and glory of God will spread in our community and perhaps as never before, we will welcome those who will come from every direction to take part in the Eucharistic table. Then when we knock at the door, the Lord will open it for us, and say to us: “Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” 

open our hearts to the Lord

Pope Francis urges us to do: to open our hearts to the Lord – not merely because he is a wise teacher or a source of help in time of trouble. More than that, the Holy Father is urging us, in the power of the Holy Spirit, to fall deeply in love with the Lord Jesus as the be all and end of our lives, the one who loves us more than we love ourselves. Yes, the Lord is present to us in many ways – most deeply and most personally in the Eucharist – but always the question is this: are we present to the Lord? Do we open our hearts to Christ? Do we seek to live in his presence?

Blessed Adèle de Batz de Trenquelléon

 

“O my God, my heart is too small to love you, but it will see to it that you are loved by so many hearts that their love will compensate for the weakness of mine” Adèle de Batz, Letter 325, May 14, 1818

encounter the Lord

It is a good thing to allow ourselves to encounter the Lord at a deeply personal level. In a certain sense, we give the Lord permission to discipline us – the way loving parents discipline their sons and daughters. In a word, we allow the Lord in his love and mercy to remove from our lives whatever it is that prevents us from loving him and loving our neighbor with that pure, generous, virtuous self-giving love born of the Gospel.

We Three Kings - 3

 

Magi are consulted in the Book of Daniel, and by Pharoah in the time of Joseph. The Greek word magi indicates these men were astrologers and interpreters of omens—following a star and dreaming dreams.

We Three Kings - 2

 

“After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, 

Magi from the east came to Jerusalem…” Matthew 2:1

We Three Kings - 1

Everyone knows the legend of the three wise men's visit to Bethlehem as retold every Christmas. Three Arabian princes followed a star to find baby Jesus, wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. They presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. This story has lived on over the centuries as a key part of the birth of Jesus.

A Divine fire

We, too, can look into the eyes of the Savior today and see the love Jesus has for us, a love like “a divine fire more intense than the burning of volcanoes, the passion of enamored hearts, and the fervor of heavenly seraphim” (Luis Maria Martinez, Only Jesus).