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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, 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, Carol McNiff, Jennifer Sheehan, Kayla Tanguay, Joshua Bakx, Danny Roberts, Barbara Chappel and Brittany Larkham, John Paul Matta, William Kucharski, Janice Daviault, 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 Sr., David Cyr Jr., Brock Borton, Joyce Normand, Jackie Guillemette, Arlene Swantek, Beata Mazur, Beth Doules, Doug Capsilors.
24 Sunday in Ordinary Time
Sirach 27:30-28:9; Romans 14:7-9; Gospel: Matthew 18:21-35
Do I always forgive others? This is today's challenge from our readings. Or do I forgive some who offend me and not others? Am I a person who bears grudges? How do I deal with the person who harms me or hurts my feelings?
Only God can give us the grace to forgive all others, those who have harmed us in any way at all. God's calls us to immediate and complete forgiveness of others. God is so clear in today's readings: if you do not forgive, how can you possibly ask forgiveness?
We know the story of the older brother within the story of the prodigal son. The older brother really resents his younger brother. The younger brother goes off and wastes all of his inheritance and then comes home and is received with incredible kindness and love by his father. This is truly injustice! And yet it is how God wants us to live: judge not and you will not be judged!
How do I treat the person who harms me? Jesus gives us the story of the servant who could not pay his debt. None of us can repay our debt to the Lord. Should God then put us in prison and torture us? Instead he forgives us our debts and asks us to forgive others.
All of us who have sinned can understand the debt that we owe to the Lord. The more we see that debt, the more we can understand that we must forgive others. So much of our spiritual literature is focused on this type of forgiveness: look at the beam in your own eye before you try to take out the small piece of straw in the eye of your brother!
The Book of Sirach spells out the teaching of today's Gospel as well: If anyone who is flesh cherishes wrath, who can forgive his sins? In order to be forgiven, we must learn to forgive.
The Letter to the Romans also speaks of our debt to one another: None of us lives for oneself, and no one dies for oneself. We can only truly live when we live for the Lord--and the Lord is always compassionate and merciful. Today, when we hear His voice, let us not harden our hearts. Instead, let us learn to forgive, even those things that seem unforgivable. It is God Himself inviting us to cleanse our souls and to forgive all who have harmed us in any way. Every time that we hold on to our anger, we damage only ourselves. Every time that we refuse forgiveness, we harm ourselves.
Let us live for God and live God's forgiveness every day - from our hearts!
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
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