Padre's Message
Click here to send an email to Fr. Gregory.
|
Dear parishioners and guests,
As most everyone knows, our Thanksgiving Day was first celebrated by English Pilgrims in October 1621. God knows they had more than enough reasons to be thankful. They made it across the Atlantic Ocean in a crowded ship several sizes too small. They wanted to reach the English colony in Virginia, but poor planning and navigation brought them to land some 500 kilometers (311 miles) north of Virginia. It was December, they were alone and on their own with precious little food. Nearly half of them did not survive that first frightful winter. When spring arrived the survivors set to work plowing and planting. Fortunately for them, they were blessed with an abundant harvest that autumn, and their leader, William Bradford, was prompted to announce a day of prayerful thanksgiving to God for the harvest. They thanked God with a religious service and then sat down to a meal. Of the dozen and a half women aboard the Mayflower when it arrived at Plymouth, only four were still alive when they sat down for the first Thanksgiving meal. The story of the Pilgrims and their colony in North America are part of the ancestry of all of us. The hardships, desperate struggles and setbacks which they experienced along the way of their search for religious freedom are part of the heritage of this country and have contributed to make its character what it is. Fast forward about 250 years to 1863. The nation was in the midst of a terrible Civil War when Abraham Lincoln issued an executive order extending the celebration of Thanksgiving Day to the whole country. In his proclamation he expressed his concern that Americans were in danger of forgetting that the blessings of food, land, family and freedom that they were enjoying were gifts of God. These four particular blessings: food, land, family and freedom came from his reading of the Old Testament. They were the blessings for which the Hebrew people were most grateful. As much as they appreciated the gift of land, especially the Promised Land, the gift they were most thankful for was their freedom, the deliverance from slavery in Egypt. They celebrated a memorial feast each year which included a Passover meal, during which time stories were told including the importance of how the strong arm of the Lord worked through Moses to bring the Hebrews out of slavery in Egypt to freedom, for this they thanked God. There are striking similarities between the occupation of the Promised Land by the people of God and the occupation of the American West. The settlement of the West contributed much to the formation of the American people, and deserves to be appreciated and not denied or ignored. So far I have provided examples of several different reasons and ways people have given thanks: the Pilgrims or President Lincoln. Now, as St. Paul once said, I would like to show you a most perfect way, the best way to be thankful. And at the same time suggest our salvation by Christ as the gift of God for which we should be most grateful. The best way to show that we appreciate a gift is to use it well. This is never truer than in the Mass where the gift of our salvation is represented sacramentally on the altar to allow us to take part in it and share its benefits. We join ourselves to Christ at Mass to be offered with him to his heavenly Father. Jesus asked us to do this at the Last Supper. Do what I have done, Do it in my memory. There is nothing more grateful in God’s eyes than the complete and total offering of his Son, Jesus, and us with him. This is our greatest possible act or expression of thanksgiving. Everything we have or are comes to us from God. It comes from his abundant goodness and merciful love. Other people may be the channels God uses to give us his gifts, and we must thank them as God’s intermediaries, yet God is their ultimate source. Rightly do we pray with Psalm 101: “Give thanks to the Lord for he is good; for his mercy endures forever.” May your everyday be a true thanksgiving day! With prayer, Fr. Gregory |
|
About Fr. Gregory
Fr. Gregory Golyzniak was born and raised in Muszyna, Poland, the youngest of four children. He attended the world's largest Catholic Seminary in
Tarnow, Poland, and was ordained in 1998. Father Gregory came to the United States and was assigned to the Diocese of Syracuse, New York, from
2002-2008. He then transferred to the Diocese of Colorado Springs, first serving as pastor of St. Joseph Catholic Church in Southgate. In 2013, Fr. Gregory was assigned to St. Peter Catholic Church in Monument. Fr. Gregory is currently working long distance on a PhD in Sacred Architecture with an emphasis on the Gothic architecture of the 11th-17th centuries.
Fr. Gregory Golyzniak was born and raised in Muszyna, Poland, the youngest of four children. He attended the world's largest Catholic Seminary in
Tarnow, Poland, and was ordained in 1998. Father Gregory came to the United States and was assigned to the Diocese of Syracuse, New York, from
2002-2008. He then transferred to the Diocese of Colorado Springs, first serving as pastor of St. Joseph Catholic Church in Southgate. In 2013, Fr. Gregory was assigned to St. Peter Catholic Church in Monument. Fr. Gregory is currently working long distance on a PhD in Sacred Architecture with an emphasis on the Gothic architecture of the 11th-17th centuries.