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Come Worship with Us!
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, Lisa Prince, Gloria Bergman, Carol Mason, Father Gus Sicard, Richard Ferus Proctor, Arlene Strazzulla, Jeanne Franzn, Nona Bilionis, Cathy Kirschbaum, Marcy Szczepanik, Bp. John Mack, Katherine Gnat, Harrison McKinstry, James Strazzulla, Harry Cullinan, Helen Rogers, Eugene Leczynski, Stanley Sepiol, Father Adam Czarnecki, Father Senior Joseph Soltysiak, Nate Rosario, Carol McNiff, Jennifer Sheehan, Kayla Tanguay, Joshua Bakx, Danny Roberts, Barbara Chappel and Brittany Larkham, 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, Judy McNeil Anita Tuozza, Maureen Carabino, John Gibson, Jonasz Tenus, Richard Salach, David Cyr Sr., David Cyr Jr., Brock Borton, Joyce Normand, Arlene Swantek, Beata Mazur, Beth Koules, Doug Capsilors, Marie Griffin, Judy McNeill, Sharon Rittuci, Kerrie Garvey, Dr. Bert Quirbach, Bp. Paul Sobiechowski, Celia Menzia, Sophie Kosidlo.
5 Sunday of Easter
Acts 9:26-31; 1 John 18-24; Gospel: John 15:1-8
Last week the Lord assured us that He is our Good Shepherd. This week, almost as a footnote, he re-minds us that His love is a love that will transform us and that in order to be transformed, we must be pruned. This changes the imagery from last week. No longer do we have the Good Shepherd, but now we have the vine (Christ), the vine grower (God the Father) and the branches (us).
Always it is difficult to speak about the challenges of living as followers of Christ. We want so much to know that we are loved. Any talk of pruning us back seems, by some, to be interpreted as not loving. Part of following Christ is accepting that God has a plan for His creation. We are not just created to be whatever we want to be. We are created by God as part of an enormous outpouring of the Father's love, all of which is part of the plan of creation.
Anyone who gardens knows that gardening demands putting in some plants and taking out others and keeping others under control. If there is no plan, there is no garden but only a person watching nature unfold. Lots of people today want the plan of creation simply to be nature unfolding--until they realize that nature of itself is broken and left to unfold of itself, creates chaos and immense suffering and prob-lems.
Our reading from the Acts of the Apostles points out what happened in the case of Saul/Paul. He was bent on eradicating Christians and then is converted. No one trusted him at that point. His reputation was as a destroyer. Now, what he had planted earlier had to be pulled up and transformed.
The reading from the First Letter of Saint John shows us why we need pruning and transformation: his commandment is this: we should believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another just as he commanded us. To love one another is only possible with pruning and transformation. As we are told over and over in the Scriptures: it is easy to love those who love us but not easy to love those who are our enemies. The command of the Lord is clear: Love your enemies as yourselves.
My sisters and brothers, let us ask for this grace of pruning and transformation every day. Let us ask for the grace to accept whatever hardship and suf-fering comes our way as we walk the road of the Lord. If we know His love, we are able to love in return: loving God and our neighbor.
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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