Acts 14:21-27; Revelation 21:1-5; John 13:31-33, 34-35

"People are often unreasonable, irrational, 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 unfaithful friends and some genuine enemies; succeed anyway.
If you are honest and sincere, people may deceive you; be honest and sincere anyway.
What you spend years creating others could destroy overnight; create anyway.
The good you do today will often be forgotten; do the good anyway.
Give the best you have and it may never be enough; give your best anyway.
In the final analysis, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway." Mother Teresa

Acts 13:44-52; John 14:7-14

In today’s Gospel, the apostle Philip has a problem that most of us might honestly admit we wrestle with too. “Master, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.” Jesus’ response makes lots of sense theologically. “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.” After all, Jesus is in the Father and the Father is in him. But the challenge comes when we know the Son in the flesh. Our sensible nature has a difficult time peeling away the flesh and blood of his human nature and recognizing what remains, the pure spirit that is God. Of course the divine attributes are there; infinity, omnipotence, immutability, omniscience, and so on. But we are so immersed in the senses; sight, sound, touch, taste and smell, that once these are eliminated we can’t imagine what is left.

Acts 13:26-33; John 14:1-6

It must have been tough to be one of the 12 apostles. This gospel brings home to me both the leap of faith these men made over and over again and how Jesus is nearly always patient with them.  (I say nearly always because at times I read a little exasperation, like the exasperation of a father when his son or daughter doesn’t heed a warning. Be careful walking backward, the dad might say. And then, when backwards walking doesn’t work out so well, a shake of the head as the dad picks up the child, brushes him off and gives him a hug before the next adventure.)

Sr. Władysława Sitarz SAC, Poland

* 18.03.1931  † 27.04.2019

R.I.P.

Sr. M. Władysława Sitarz, daughter of Władysław and Helena Rusin, was born on 18 March 1931 in Żarnówek near Maków Podhalański. On 22 March she was baptized in the parish church in Maków Podhalański (Diocese of Cracow), and in 1942 she received the sacrament of confirmation in Żarnówek. She joined the Congregation of the Missionary Sisters of the Catholic Apostolate (Pallottines) on 15 September 1950 in Lidzbark Warmiński, and there, on August 15, 1951, she received the religious habit. She made her first profession of religious vows on August 5, 1953 in Suchary, and perpetual vows on August 5, 1959, also in Suchary.

Acts 13:13-25; Jn 13:16-20

In that first reading, from the Acts of the Apostles, Luke shows the way St. Paul did his missionary work. Upon arriving in a new town, his method was first to go to one of the local synagogues and bring the gospel message to the folks who, by heritage, were most entitled to it, his fellow Jews. After the readings of that Sabbath from the scrolls of the Law and the prophets, the leader would ask if the visitor had any message for the congregation. Did he ever! As Luke tells it regarding Paul’s visit to this synagogue in the town of Antioch in Pisidia, Paul got up and presented a thumb-nail summary of the history of the people of Israel—with the surprise ending that the whole thing had been climaxed by the life, death, and resurrection (!) of a craftsman from Nazareth—Jesus! That was a turn of events that no one had expected. There were plenty of expectations about a future anointed servant of God, but none that matched the kind of Messiah that Jesus turned out to be.

 April 2019

Rome

▪ His Holiness Pope Francis during Urbi et orbi  addressed to the faithful gathered at St. Peter’s Square and to every person in the world His Easter message as he began; “Christ is alive! He is our hope, and in a wonderful way he brings youth to our world. Everything he touches becomes young, new, full of life. The very first words, then, that I would like to say to every young Christian are these: Christ is alive and he wants you to be alive! He is in you, he is with you and he never abandons you. However far you may wander, he is always there, the Risen One. He calls you and he waits for you to return to him and start over again. When you feel you are growing old out of sorrow, resentment or fear, doubt or failure, he will always be there to restore your strength and your hope” (Christus Vivit 1-2).

In the atmosphere of the Easter Octave and with the joy of risen Christ, the Polish Province hosted the Central Assembly for the Pallottine Missionary Sisters from 24th April to 3rd May. This gathering was connected with the Jubilee year of the Province who is celebrating their 85^th anniversary of foundation. 

The meeting was organized in two parts. The first took place in Warsaw, Ołtarzew, at the Pallottine Fathers Seminary with the participation of the General Council and the Major Superiors of Pallottine Missionary Sisters (SAC) from all over the world: Germany, England, South Africa, USA, Switzerland, Belize, Poland, India, Rwanda, Tanzania, Cameroon; also attending were the General Mission Procurator, Novice mistress of our International Novitiate, and special guests of the Pallottine Sisters of the Catholic Apostolate (CSAC) :  M. Ivete Garlet, General Superior and her Councilors and Sr. Daniela Siniscalchi,  Provincial Superior of Italian Province with Sr. Beatrice, her Councilor.