OK!
So all of you can "borrow" him but just remember that he does belong to us!
Of course I am speaking of SAINT Patrick.
Catch that word, his recognized title - SAINT.
That means that he belongs to us. We, Catholics, have saints. We recognize people of all eras in history and of every geographical place and at every stage in life as having lived exemplary lives, holy lives. They may not have at all times been holy but holiness became and was the hallmark of their lives. They show us what in means to live in union with True Holiness, namely God.
In our "family," we, Catholics hold these sisters and brothers as models for us to imitate. We also trust that they care about us and truly want to see us becoming holy as well. They know that joy of holiness.
And Patrick is one of them - a SAINT!
And this weekend so many, even those not Catholic and even some who do not even believe in Jesus and maybe even some who do not believe in anything at all but themselves, will be celebrating.
And it will be all about SAINT Patrick.
Our guy!
So, OK, you can borrow him for the weekend but just remember he does belong to us.
And as you borrow SAINT Patrick, it occurs to me that you are getting good at borrowing from us. I even suspect that deep down you may like us.
Last month you were borrowing someone named Valentine, and that is SAINT Valentine, you know.
Yep! Another one of ours.
And you really get into borrowing Christmas from us. You go all out for that one.
And while remembering Christmas, it seems that you also attach someone named SAINT Nicholas to that!
And recently another borrowing has been gaining popularity. Early October we remember SAINT Francis and in his honor we have taken to blessing animals. After all he does remind us that our lives are blessed by the presence of animals.
This was a "Catholic thing" but recently this practice has been gaining in popularity among others of our Christian sisters and brothers.
So borrow away!
But just remember, these are ours.
And by the way, check out our calendar. We have a whole lot more for you to look at. Why, we have saints for everyday of the year! And celebrations too!
We, Catholics, know how to celebrate.
And you know, you could just stop borrowing and link up with us.
We would be happy to welcome you.
And in our Family you would find brothers and sisters to help you to holiness.
And do have a very Happy SAINT Patrick's Day!
Friday, March 15, 2019
Saturday, March 9, 2019
Back when ...
As we enter the First Week of Lent,
I can remember back when. In my early days, and that is way back when, in those days before every home had a tv set and McDonalds was still a dream in someone's imagination, back that far, the arrival of Lent meant that many of our evenings and even Sunday afternoons would be claimed.
By Church!
In our parish Wednesday and Friday evenings meant Stations of the Cross and Benediction. (Google these if you do not know what I am talking about!)
Seven o'clock we were in church and that was that. And the church was crowded. Slowly, the mini-procession - cross bearer, two candle bearers, likely still another server or two and the priest - made its way around the church, pausing at each station for song and reflection and prayer. It was our devotional journey of prayerful reflection on the price of God's love for us.
On Sundays there were also the Stations only this time in mid-afternoon, at three as I remember.
As an added "bonus," because we were youngsters and students in a parochial school, we had Stations of the Cross for Children on Friday afternoons before we were dismissed from school for the weekend.
We got a lot of Stations of the Cross growing up.
But we had more!
The Feast of St. Joseph was a big deal especially in our parish where our pastor's first name was Joseph. This provided a special treat in that every year we had March 19th as a free day - no school! However, even that came at a price. On that day we had to show up for Mass. The sisters warned us that we had no assurance that Father was going to give us that free day, so come to Mass and be prepared for a school day. But every year Father came through.
Oh, there was also another slight fee to that "free day."
We had a Novena to St. Joseph with special prayers, public prayers, I might add, every evening at seven and on Sunday at three. On the days we had Stations, the novena prayers were added to the Stations. This meant nine days more in church.
And as if all of this praying was not enough, back then we had a Feast in honor of Our Sorrowful Mother, Mary. It came the Friday before Good Friday and, yes, it came with its own novena!
That was nine days more in church.
And just imagine when Lent came early in the year and we were "blessed" with a convergence of all three! Stations followed by the Novena to St. Joseph followed by the Novena to Our Sorrowful Mother! And then Benediction!
Giving up candy for Lent back when was no problem. We were in church so much that we didn't have time for candy!
Giving up movies for Lent back when was no problem. We were in church so much we had no time to go to a movie!
And looking at this on the serious side, yes, indeed, we were in church a lot praying together as a community. We were gaining a large part of our sense of being The Church from the fact that we took the time to pray together as Church - young and old, haves and have nots, from all sides of the political spectrum. We prayed together and from that emerged a sense of more than neighborhood. We were a community, and perhaps even more, a family.
Praying together bonded us together.
And when we consider today's sense of individualism - well, is it any wonder we seem not able to get along anymore?
We don't even pray together!
I can remember back when. In my early days, and that is way back when, in those days before every home had a tv set and McDonalds was still a dream in someone's imagination, back that far, the arrival of Lent meant that many of our evenings and even Sunday afternoons would be claimed.
By Church!
In our parish Wednesday and Friday evenings meant Stations of the Cross and Benediction. (Google these if you do not know what I am talking about!)
Seven o'clock we were in church and that was that. And the church was crowded. Slowly, the mini-procession - cross bearer, two candle bearers, likely still another server or two and the priest - made its way around the church, pausing at each station for song and reflection and prayer. It was our devotional journey of prayerful reflection on the price of God's love for us.
On Sundays there were also the Stations only this time in mid-afternoon, at three as I remember.
As an added "bonus," because we were youngsters and students in a parochial school, we had Stations of the Cross for Children on Friday afternoons before we were dismissed from school for the weekend.
We got a lot of Stations of the Cross growing up.
But we had more!
The Feast of St. Joseph was a big deal especially in our parish where our pastor's first name was Joseph. This provided a special treat in that every year we had March 19th as a free day - no school! However, even that came at a price. On that day we had to show up for Mass. The sisters warned us that we had no assurance that Father was going to give us that free day, so come to Mass and be prepared for a school day. But every year Father came through.
Oh, there was also another slight fee to that "free day."
We had a Novena to St. Joseph with special prayers, public prayers, I might add, every evening at seven and on Sunday at three. On the days we had Stations, the novena prayers were added to the Stations. This meant nine days more in church.
And as if all of this praying was not enough, back then we had a Feast in honor of Our Sorrowful Mother, Mary. It came the Friday before Good Friday and, yes, it came with its own novena!
That was nine days more in church.
And just imagine when Lent came early in the year and we were "blessed" with a convergence of all three! Stations followed by the Novena to St. Joseph followed by the Novena to Our Sorrowful Mother! And then Benediction!
Giving up candy for Lent back when was no problem. We were in church so much that we didn't have time for candy!
Giving up movies for Lent back when was no problem. We were in church so much we had no time to go to a movie!
And looking at this on the serious side, yes, indeed, we were in church a lot praying together as a community. We were gaining a large part of our sense of being The Church from the fact that we took the time to pray together as Church - young and old, haves and have nots, from all sides of the political spectrum. We prayed together and from that emerged a sense of more than neighborhood. We were a community, and perhaps even more, a family.
Praying together bonded us together.
And when we consider today's sense of individualism - well, is it any wonder we seem not able to get along anymore?
We don't even pray together!
Wednesday, March 6, 2019
Remember, you are . . .
Dust!
Yes, we hear those words once again and it is almost as if we want to hear them, perhaps even need to hear them.
Ash Wednesday is "Go to church" day. It truly seems that this is one occasion, ranking right there with Christmas, when people feel the need to go to church. And it is not just Catholics who
see this as a go to church day. Most mainstream Christian denominations are also doing the ashes.
I got to thinking about how this day and that marking with the ashes seems so critical to so many. It is not and has never been a day of obligation. We don't have to go and we don't have to get marked with those ashes.
But we do it anyhow.
It is like we are somehow wired within to need this.
And may I suggest that we do, indeed, need this.
Life can get so demanding, so complex, so filled with so much. And as we feel ourselves pulled this way and that, we can even start to think of ourselves as somehow indispensable. Why, without us, the world would likely collapse!
But the ashes call us back to reality.
You are dust and to dust you shall return.
It's like the Voice of God calling us back to reality.
Dust!
Frail and fragile, weak and even broken, sinful and failed!
Dust!
Every last one of us.
That panhandler on the corner and that Bishop of Rome - dust!
That immigrant, making that perilous journey, hoping for a chance at something better and that one who actually rules that land the immigrant hopes to enter - dust the both of them.
We need to face reality, to remember who and what we truly are for it is in that remembering that we begin to question where, truly, we acquire our value, our worth.
Who is it that formed us from this dust?
Who is it that has chosen to breathe life into each one of us?
Who is it that had chosen to love what has been called into being even though it is flawed, failed and sinful?
Who indeed?
It is in that "Who" that we can then begin to discover the true source of our worth and the true meaning of our life.
And until we make that discovery and unless we continue to renew our awareness of that discovery, we remain dust, one day returning to dust.
Yes, we hear those words once again and it is almost as if we want to hear them, perhaps even need to hear them.
Ash Wednesday is "Go to church" day. It truly seems that this is one occasion, ranking right there with Christmas, when people feel the need to go to church. And it is not just Catholics who
see this as a go to church day. Most mainstream Christian denominations are also doing the ashes.
I got to thinking about how this day and that marking with the ashes seems so critical to so many. It is not and has never been a day of obligation. We don't have to go and we don't have to get marked with those ashes.
But we do it anyhow.
It is like we are somehow wired within to need this.
And may I suggest that we do, indeed, need this.
Life can get so demanding, so complex, so filled with so much. And as we feel ourselves pulled this way and that, we can even start to think of ourselves as somehow indispensable. Why, without us, the world would likely collapse!
But the ashes call us back to reality.
You are dust and to dust you shall return.
It's like the Voice of God calling us back to reality.
Dust!
Frail and fragile, weak and even broken, sinful and failed!
Dust!
Every last one of us.
That panhandler on the corner and that Bishop of Rome - dust!
That immigrant, making that perilous journey, hoping for a chance at something better and that one who actually rules that land the immigrant hopes to enter - dust the both of them.
We need to face reality, to remember who and what we truly are for it is in that remembering that we begin to question where, truly, we acquire our value, our worth.
Who is it that formed us from this dust?
Who is it that has chosen to breathe life into each one of us?
Who is it that had chosen to love what has been called into being even though it is flawed, failed and sinful?
Who indeed?
It is in that "Who" that we can then begin to discover the true source of our worth and the true meaning of our life.
And until we make that discovery and unless we continue to renew our awareness of that discovery, we remain dust, one day returning to dust.
Thursday, February 28, 2019
Laughing . . . with the Gospel!
Looking ahead and kind of wondering.
Will we hear any laughter in our churches this coming weekend? And as I raise that question, I also need to acknowledge that in some of our Christian Faith congregations a different Gospel will be heard because a number of traditions observe this coming Sunday as Transfiguration Sunday. However, as to the rest of us . . . will there be any laughter? Or even some chuckles? Or will we even see a smile breaking through the somberness as the Gospel is proclaimed?
In spite of the fact that Pope Francis has reminded and continues to remind us that there is and should be joy in the Gospel, for so very many church-time is serious time and that means somber time and that means leave those smiles outside the doors!
Did it ever occur to you that Jesus did have a sense of humor. Or perhaps more correctly, Jesus does have a sense of humor. He is fully and totally human and that should means that humor and smiles and laughter cannot be left out.
Remember that time when Peter, seeing Jesus walking in the middle of the storm on the choppy waters, asked to join Him? Jesus said, "Come on, Peter!" And I can just picture Jesus with a smile as He said that, thinking to Himself, "Oh, Peter, watch out for what you ask!"
Anyhow, while so many will likely miss it, this coming weekend, for those of us using the Common Lectionary and reading from Luke for the Eighth Sunday of Ordinary Time, we get a big glimpse of the sense of humor that Jesus has.
His examples are funny. Try to imagine them.
This blind guy asks another blind guy to lead him. Neither knows the other is blind! Picture them walking along the road.
Use your imagination and just visualize that walk!
And then there is the image of that beam of wood sticking out of an eye while beam-eye tries to help someone remove a speck from theirs!
And that delicious looking fruit tree, enticing until a bite is taken from the fruit and it is worse than lemon or maybe just filled with rot! Surprise!
Images designed to make us smile and then pause and think.
Why must Jesus be pictured as always speaking with chimes and a choir of angels humming in the background?
Can you picture Jesus smiling? Laughing? Telling a joke?
Can you picture Jesus laughing with you? Or maybe (often?) laughing at you?
Can you picture Jesus down to earth?
Et incarnatus est!
(Now I invite your thought and comments on this in the comment section below.)
Will we hear any laughter in our churches this coming weekend? And as I raise that question, I also need to acknowledge that in some of our Christian Faith congregations a different Gospel will be heard because a number of traditions observe this coming Sunday as Transfiguration Sunday. However, as to the rest of us . . . will there be any laughter? Or even some chuckles? Or will we even see a smile breaking through the somberness as the Gospel is proclaimed?
In spite of the fact that Pope Francis has reminded and continues to remind us that there is and should be joy in the Gospel, for so very many church-time is serious time and that means somber time and that means leave those smiles outside the doors!
Did it ever occur to you that Jesus did have a sense of humor. Or perhaps more correctly, Jesus does have a sense of humor. He is fully and totally human and that should means that humor and smiles and laughter cannot be left out.
Remember that time when Peter, seeing Jesus walking in the middle of the storm on the choppy waters, asked to join Him? Jesus said, "Come on, Peter!" And I can just picture Jesus with a smile as He said that, thinking to Himself, "Oh, Peter, watch out for what you ask!"
Anyhow, while so many will likely miss it, this coming weekend, for those of us using the Common Lectionary and reading from Luke for the Eighth Sunday of Ordinary Time, we get a big glimpse of the sense of humor that Jesus has.
His examples are funny. Try to imagine them.
This blind guy asks another blind guy to lead him. Neither knows the other is blind! Picture them walking along the road.
Use your imagination and just visualize that walk!
And then there is the image of that beam of wood sticking out of an eye while beam-eye tries to help someone remove a speck from theirs!
And that delicious looking fruit tree, enticing until a bite is taken from the fruit and it is worse than lemon or maybe just filled with rot! Surprise!
Images designed to make us smile and then pause and think.
Why must Jesus be pictured as always speaking with chimes and a choir of angels humming in the background?
Can you picture Jesus smiling? Laughing? Telling a joke?
Can you picture Jesus laughing with you? Or maybe (often?) laughing at you?
Can you picture Jesus down to earth?
Et incarnatus est!
(Now I invite your thought and comments on this in the comment section below.)
Wednesday, February 20, 2019
February 20, 1895
Yes!
February 20, 1895!
So what is so special about that particular date?
Well, I found it mentioned and thought it appropriate to mention here as well especially since we are coming to the close of Black History Month and even more especially considering some of the current climate in our society these days.
February 20, 1895 is the day that Frederick Douglas died.
I found that mentioned in a reflection on him and his life in a little monthly devotional to which I subscribe. The monthly is Give Us This Day and it is published by Liturgical Press.
So, as I reflected on what was written about Frederick Douglas, I began to wonder how many are even familiar with that name. How many know this particular and important piece of United States History?
Frederick Douglas?
Oh - wasn't he that slave?
You know - the one who . . . ???
Indeed, he was that slave, for the first twenty years of his life he was a slave, mistreated, beaten, forced to endure and witness some terrible cruelties at the hands of his masters, folks who professed to be Christians and who found justification for their behavior in their religion.
Mr. Douglas came to conclude that this was a blasphemous distortion of the Gospel.
He managed to escape to freedom and eventually became a minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church. From his pulpit he preached strong words against churches that supported slavery and fostered racism. In his writings he captured this thought while declaring, "Between the Christianity of this land and the Christianity of Christ, I recognize the widest possible difference."
I strikes me that we need to hear those word even still today.
They call us to examine our own living of our faith.
How closely do our daily lives truly reflect what we hear from our pulpits on Sunday?
Last weekend, this and the next - our three weekends before this year's Lent, we are hearing some very strong words from Jesus, from Luke's Gospel, chapter 6, the section called the sermon on the Plain.
These are not just words about racism but about the whole way we order our lives, about the values we hold, the things we count as important. They are challenging words but words that Jesus intends to be taken seriously.
Jesus intends that these words are embodied in our lives - no compromise, no watering down!
As we hear these words of Jesus, we should find cause for reflection, for examination.
Between the Christianity of my life and the Christianity of Christ, how wide is the difference?
We may be discovering our Lenten call to action!
A preacher who passed some hundred and twenty-four years ago speaks to us today and calls us to listen carefully to a Preacher who spoke words of life some two millennia ago.
Listen!
And more importantly, take seriously!
February 20, 1895!
So what is so special about that particular date?
Well, I found it mentioned and thought it appropriate to mention here as well especially since we are coming to the close of Black History Month and even more especially considering some of the current climate in our society these days.
February 20, 1895 is the day that Frederick Douglas died.
I found that mentioned in a reflection on him and his life in a little monthly devotional to which I subscribe. The monthly is Give Us This Day and it is published by Liturgical Press.
So, as I reflected on what was written about Frederick Douglas, I began to wonder how many are even familiar with that name. How many know this particular and important piece of United States History?
Frederick Douglas?
Oh - wasn't he that slave?
You know - the one who . . . ???
Indeed, he was that slave, for the first twenty years of his life he was a slave, mistreated, beaten, forced to endure and witness some terrible cruelties at the hands of his masters, folks who professed to be Christians and who found justification for their behavior in their religion.
Mr. Douglas came to conclude that this was a blasphemous distortion of the Gospel.
He managed to escape to freedom and eventually became a minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church. From his pulpit he preached strong words against churches that supported slavery and fostered racism. In his writings he captured this thought while declaring, "Between the Christianity of this land and the Christianity of Christ, I recognize the widest possible difference."
I strikes me that we need to hear those word even still today.
They call us to examine our own living of our faith.
How closely do our daily lives truly reflect what we hear from our pulpits on Sunday?
Last weekend, this and the next - our three weekends before this year's Lent, we are hearing some very strong words from Jesus, from Luke's Gospel, chapter 6, the section called the sermon on the Plain.
These are not just words about racism but about the whole way we order our lives, about the values we hold, the things we count as important. They are challenging words but words that Jesus intends to be taken seriously.
Jesus intends that these words are embodied in our lives - no compromise, no watering down!
As we hear these words of Jesus, we should find cause for reflection, for examination.
Between the Christianity of my life and the Christianity of Christ, how wide is the difference?
We may be discovering our Lenten call to action!
A preacher who passed some hundred and twenty-four years ago speaks to us today and calls us to listen carefully to a Preacher who spoke words of life some two millennia ago.
Listen!
And more importantly, take seriously!
Monday, February 11, 2019
Septua . . . What???
It is almost time for Septuagesima!
And if you know what Septuagesima is, you are old! I mean really old! Like almost as old as am I!
We have not actually had anything like Septuagesima since around 1969.
But we did at one time have it and if we had it still, it would be starting this weekend - February 16/17.
Septuagesima!
The word means "seventy" and it begins a sort of count-down to Easter.
Of all of our days and all of our feasts, none excels Easter.
It is like Mother Church just cannot wait.
Lent begins out immediate preparation for this great feast.
But there was a time in our history when we even began to prepare for Lent.
That was Septuagesima.
On that Sunday we already pulled out the penitential purple.
It was time to get thinking about and planning for - what are you going to be about in your journey to Easter this year.
Septuagesima said - Gang, we only have around seventy days to get ready for Easter. So, get moving gang! Get moving!
This is too important to just let slide on by.
That tongue twisting word - Septuagesima gave way to the following week - Sexigesima Sunday which said - Now you have only about sixty days to get ready. Shake a leg, gang!
And then cam the Sunday right before Lent began. That one had the name Quinquagesima! Fifty days more and Easter will be here.
This is too important a time!
Get into it and do it NOW!
Well, the little season of pre-Lent disappeared with the new calendar in 1969.
Too bad!
We are heading to the center of our year, the total focus of our attention. We are moving toward the most important of our days.
We need to take this time seriously.
We need to take this opportunity seriously.
Before those ashes mark our foreheads, we need to ask ourselves what the ashes will call us to this year.
More importantly, we need to ask what that marking of ashes will have God calling us to.
We may not have a Septuagesima Sunday but that should be no reason for us to not start getting ourselves into the mode of personal renewal.
Gang, Lent really is around the corner.
Get into the mood!
Make it dynamite!
Happy Septuagesima Season!
And if you know what Septuagesima is, you are old! I mean really old! Like almost as old as am I!
We have not actually had anything like Septuagesima since around 1969.
But we did at one time have it and if we had it still, it would be starting this weekend - February 16/17.
Septuagesima!
The word means "seventy" and it begins a sort of count-down to Easter.
Of all of our days and all of our feasts, none excels Easter.
It is like Mother Church just cannot wait.
Lent begins out immediate preparation for this great feast.
But there was a time in our history when we even began to prepare for Lent.
That was Septuagesima.
On that Sunday we already pulled out the penitential purple.
It was time to get thinking about and planning for - what are you going to be about in your journey to Easter this year.
Septuagesima said - Gang, we only have around seventy days to get ready for Easter. So, get moving gang! Get moving!
This is too important to just let slide on by.
That tongue twisting word - Septuagesima gave way to the following week - Sexigesima Sunday which said - Now you have only about sixty days to get ready. Shake a leg, gang!
And then cam the Sunday right before Lent began. That one had the name Quinquagesima! Fifty days more and Easter will be here.
This is too important a time!
Get into it and do it NOW!
Well, the little season of pre-Lent disappeared with the new calendar in 1969.
Too bad!
We are heading to the center of our year, the total focus of our attention. We are moving toward the most important of our days.
We need to take this time seriously.
We need to take this opportunity seriously.
Before those ashes mark our foreheads, we need to ask ourselves what the ashes will call us to this year.
More importantly, we need to ask what that marking of ashes will have God calling us to.
We may not have a Septuagesima Sunday but that should be no reason for us to not start getting ourselves into the mode of personal renewal.
Gang, Lent really is around the corner.
Get into the mood!
Make it dynamite!
Happy Septuagesima Season!
Saturday, February 2, 2019
Hey, Phil!
Maybe that is why they are called "smart phones."
First thing I see on my phone screen this morning is the information that Punxsutawney Phil has announced that spring is near and we will have a shortened winter.
Then came the second item.
"But don't get your hopes up. He is usually wrong."
Smart phone indeed!
Anyhow, that got me to some memories. You see, I have actually been to Punxsutawney. Or perhaps more correctly, I have been through Punxsutawney. It was on my way to Rossiter, Pennsylvania. And, yes, there is such a place as Rossiter, Pennsylvania. Google it!
I did and discovered that presently, according to the 2010 census, it is considered a CDP, census designated place.
Never heard that term before actually. A "census designated place."
Not a city; not a village; not a town even.
A census designated place.
Which means a place where people live, a group of people. In the case of Rossiter according to the 2010 census that group of people totals 646.
I believe it.
When I visited there, back in the 1960's, I nearly missed it completely. Drove right through and then realized, "Oops! That was it!"
And so what was I doing in a place like that?
Tracing a bit of family history.
My mom's family originally settled there. Back then Rossiter was a booming coal mining town.
I went there because a handful of family still lived there.
I got to spend some time with them.
They took me to the original and only parish church in Rossiter. At that time it was St. Francis of Assisi but, evidently, this has clustered and is now a part of Resurrection Parish. The old church, however, still stands! And Mass there this Sunday is at 8:30 AM It's for John Kollar from his wife, Evelyn and family.
I also got to see the field where my grandparents once lived. OK - when grandma and grandpa Kopas lived there, there were houses but the houses are long gone as is the coal mine and so what remains is a field.
And I had dinner with the remaining Rossiter Kopas family members.
I got in touch with some roots.
And to get there I had to pass through Punxsutawney.
Didn't see Phil there.
Probably was in hiding for his wrong call for that year.
Besides, it was summer when I made that trip.
And the weather was summery.
And the sun was shining.
And poor Phil was probably hiding from his shadow.
This Week's Parish Bulletin (Resurrection Parish - Rossiter)
First thing I see on my phone screen this morning is the information that Punxsutawney Phil has announced that spring is near and we will have a shortened winter.
Then came the second item.
"But don't get your hopes up. He is usually wrong."
Smart phone indeed!
Anyhow, that got me to some memories. You see, I have actually been to Punxsutawney. Or perhaps more correctly, I have been through Punxsutawney. It was on my way to Rossiter, Pennsylvania. And, yes, there is such a place as Rossiter, Pennsylvania. Google it!
I did and discovered that presently, according to the 2010 census, it is considered a CDP, census designated place.
Never heard that term before actually. A "census designated place."
Not a city; not a village; not a town even.
A census designated place.
Which means a place where people live, a group of people. In the case of Rossiter according to the 2010 census that group of people totals 646.
I believe it.
When I visited there, back in the 1960's, I nearly missed it completely. Drove right through and then realized, "Oops! That was it!"
And so what was I doing in a place like that?
Tracing a bit of family history.
My mom's family originally settled there. Back then Rossiter was a booming coal mining town.
I went there because a handful of family still lived there.
I got to spend some time with them.
They took me to the original and only parish church in Rossiter. At that time it was St. Francis of Assisi but, evidently, this has clustered and is now a part of Resurrection Parish. The old church, however, still stands! And Mass there this Sunday is at 8:30 AM It's for John Kollar from his wife, Evelyn and family.
I also got to see the field where my grandparents once lived. OK - when grandma and grandpa Kopas lived there, there were houses but the houses are long gone as is the coal mine and so what remains is a field.
And I had dinner with the remaining Rossiter Kopas family members.
I got in touch with some roots.
And to get there I had to pass through Punxsutawney.
Didn't see Phil there.
Probably was in hiding for his wrong call for that year.
Besides, it was summer when I made that trip.
And the weather was summery.
And the sun was shining.
And poor Phil was probably hiding from his shadow.
This Week's Parish Bulletin (Resurrection Parish - Rossiter)
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