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10:00 AM | Sunday
9:00 AM | Weekdays
(Except Monday)
St. Casimir's Parish
Polish National Catholic Church
268 Lakeview Avenue - Lowell, Massachusetts 01850 USA
Your prayers are requested
for the sick, shut ins and those serving in our military.
James Obara, Esther & Mary Riopelle, Carol Martin, Irene Mieczkowski, Lisa Prince, Gloria Bergman, Carol Mason, Marie Dunn, Father Gus Sicard, Richard Ferus Proctor, Arlene Strazzulla, Jeanne Franzn, Nona Bilionis, Cathy Kirschbaum, Marcy Szczepanik, Marion Kowalski, Bp. John Mack, Katherine Gnat, Harrison McKinstry, James Strazzulla, Harry Cullinan, Helen Rogers, Eugene Leczynski, Stanley Sepiol, Mark Kourey, Father Adam Czarnecki, Father Senior Joseph Soltysiak, Nate Rosario, Fr. Tom Sheha, Carol McNiff, Jennifer Sheehan, Kayla Tanguay, Joshua Bakx, Danny Roberts, Barbara Chappel and Brittany Larkham, John Paul Matta, William Kucharski, Janice Daviault, Dr. Greg Ross, Ben Marek, Rosalynn Owens, Brett Kraz, Gina Pellegrino, Alessandra Ventura, Dolly Normand, Kevin Frawley, Marilyn Folcik, Ann Platt, Corinne Berube, Flora Radziunas, Peter Willis, Krissy Toth, Ted Kostzewski, Janet Dadoly, Colton Bouchillon, Jack Kirschbaum, Diane Becchetti, Barbara Dobson, Judy McNeil, Anita Tuozza, Maureen Carabino, John Gibson, Jonasz Tenus, Richard Salach, David Cyr Jr., Brock Borton, Joyce Normand, Noelle Kosidlo, Jackie Guillemette
Prayer in Time of National Anxiety
Let us pray. I come to You, Lord, in this time of uncertainty and confusion that has gripped
our nation and our world. I pray that our leaders and representatives in government are
filled with Your peace, strength and courage. May your gifts of wisdom and understanding,
fortitude and counsel be sought and utilized by them for the well-being of our country. By
their belief and trust in You may they provide capable leadership, promote unity and peace,
and be attentive to the concerns of our people. May Your Church provide support and
comfort; and help strengthen our hope for peace through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
5 Sunday of Lent - Passion Sunday
Ezekiel 37:12-14; Romans 8:8-11; Gospel: John 11:1-45
Today's readings speak to us of the resurrection of the dead. Both the Prophet Ezekiel and the author of John's Gospel speak about people being brought back to life, people who have died and come back as themselves. Clearly, the afterlife for a believing Christian is a personal experience and not just being absorbed into the divinity.
Today many people do not believe in any life after this one. Sometimes teachers in schools even try to convince young people that there is no God and nothing beyond this life. We who believe in Jesus Christ have great confidence in a personal afterlife in which we shall be with the Lord and fully alive in every way.
When we hear the first reading, from the Prophet Ezekiel, we can at first wonder if this is just some sort of hope for the future or is it really a prophecy. Resurrection from the dead is generally not a part of the teachings of the Hebrew Scriptures. On the other hand, when we find passages such as this one, we can see how easy it was for some to begin to think about what happens after this life.
One of the challenges in the Gospel today is that Lazarus is brought back to life, but will have to die again. There is no promise here at all of a lasting resurrection, but simply a returning to life after dying. Lazarus is not raised in the heavenly body that will be his when he dies into the Kingdom.
The second reading, from the Letter to the Romans, is interesting in that it speaks of living in the flesh and living in the spirit. Most of us probably know this difference simply from our own life's experience. When we live in the flesh, we allow our desires, our wants and our attractions to determine how we live, without examining them very much at all. When we live in the spirit, we have the same desires, wants and attractions as before but we look at them from the perspective of our life in Christ and choose that which helps us live more profoundly in Christ.
Every time that we choose to reject sin and reject that which would lead us to be less in Christ, there is a sort of resurrection miracle present in our lives. Ultimately, any serious inner life in Christ is actually the work of the Holy Spirit and a gift of Christ Himself to us. Yet we must always do our part by cooperating, by seeking to choose that which helps us live this mystery of Christ more profoundly.
Living in the Spirit does not indicate that we never sin nor that we are never tempted to sin. It only implies that we seek to make the choices that keep us from sinning and which strengthen us in the bonds of serving Christ faithfully.
On this fifth Sunday of Lent, we can ask that we may know the power of the resurrection in our lives and that we may respond daily to Christ's invitation to life.
Come, Worship With Us on Sunday
You are invited to join us at 10:00 on any Sunday morning to attend Mass at our church. No matter your background, ethnicity, or denomination, we don't look at that. Just people with good will looking for some place to fill out their souls. If you need comfort, a place to pray, this is the place. We do not judge—it's not up to us to judge. All are welcome.
The Mass liturgy is celebrated in English and booklets are available for you to follow the service in comfort. Please come and worship along side the friendly people of St. Casimir’s.
A Special Announcement...
We are very thankful for the response we have received from our websie readers! In the very short period of time since we created our site, we have received many messages from you via the Contact Us page with comments and questions about our activities, and requests for information about our church, our cemetery and the PNCC in general. How wonderful that is! Thank you very much.
We would like to apologize, however, for our failure to keep the site current. We have a lot going on at St. Casimir's and our volunteer parishioners are really very busy. We are working on a plan to maintain the website on a more current schedule and ask your indulgence. In order to make the site even more interesting, we are in the process of redesigning it as yu will see in the coming weeks....please send us your comments as we progress.
Rev. Andrzej Tenus
SHUT-INS:
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