Come Holy Spirit!

Dear Parishioners,

This weekend we celebrate the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles and the Blessed Virgin Mary—Pentecost Sunday.  Unfortunately, it will be another important solemnity on the Catholic Church calendar where the doors of our Church will be closed for public Holy Mass.  Please pray that we will soon be permitted to resume public Masses once again.  In the meantime, you are invited to watch our live-stream on Facebook.  

Wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety and fear of the Lord are the traditional seven spiritual gifts that the Holy Spirit gives to us.  They are enumerated in the Book of the Prophet Isaiah. (11:2-3)  According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church: “The moral life of Christians is sustained by the gifts of the Holy Spirit.  These are permanent dispositions which make man docile in following the promptings of the Holy Spirit.” (1830)

Here’s a brief summary of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit (from Scott P. Richert) that I found helpful:

Through wisdom, we come to value properly those things which we believe through faith.  The truths of Christian belief are more important than the things of this world, and wisdom helps us to order our relationship to the created world properly, loving Creation for the sake of God, rather than for its own sake.

While wisdom is the desire to contemplate the things of God, understanding allows us grasp, at least in a limited way, the very essence of the truths of the Catholic Faith. Through understanding, we gain a certitude about our beliefs that moves beyond faith.

Through the gift of counsel, we are able to judge how best to act almost by intuition.  Because of the gift of counsel, Christians need not fear to stand up for the truths of the Faith, because the Holy Spirit will guide us in defending those truths.

Fortitude gives us the strength to follow through on the actions suggested by the gift of counsel.  Fortitude is the virtue of the martyrs that allows them to suffer death rather than to renounce the Christian Faith.

Knowledge allows us to see the circumstances of our life the way that God seems them.  Through this gift of the Holy Spirit, we can determine God's purpose for our lives and live them accordingly.

Piety takes the willingness to worship and to serve God beyond a sense of duty, so that we desire to worship God and to serve Him out of love.

Fear of the Lord gives us the desire not to offend God, as well as the certainty that God will supply us the grace that we need in order to keep from offending Him.  Our desire not to offend God is more than simply a sense of duty; like piety, the fear of the Lord arises out of love.

These Gifts of the Holy Spirit “complete and perfect the virtues of those who receive them.  They make the faithful docile in readily obeying divine inspirations.”  (Catechism, 1831)

By being open and receptive to these gifts of the Holy Spirit you will be pleasantly surprised where the promptings of the Holy Spirit lead you!

Fr. Ed Namiotka

Pastor

Offering Mass "Ad Orientem"

The B.V.M. Altar at St. Patrick Church

Dear Parishioners,

I have been sensing a certain restlessness in the people whom I had the opportunity to speak with during the past couple weeks.  After about two months of quarantine, most people seem ready to get back to a normal routine and not be continually confined to home.  With the warm weather upon us, it's time to get out into some fresh air and sunshine.  We need some vitamin D.  We are used to taking walks, riding bikes, playing and watching outdoor sports, enjoying barbecues and cookouts, going to the beach, etc. and not staring at the four walls of some room.  We are not meant to be continually locked up.

I hope that you feel the same way—restless—about not being able to get to Mass.  The words of St. Augustine seem appropriate at this time:  . . . our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee.  Sadly, a significant number of Catholics were not regular in their Mass attendance prior to the coronavirus pandemic.  Now that the situation has proven not as bad as it could have been, I wonder what Mass attendance will look like in the weeks and months ahead?  Will we have a greater hunger for the Bread of Life?

I have been offering a "private" daily Mass, usually at one of the side altars in St. Patrick Church or in our rectory chapel.  All of the announced (and some unannounced) Mass intentions are being fulfilled by our priests.  Mostly, Mass is being offered ad Deum (towards God) or ad orientem (facing liturgical east) and not versus populum (facing the people).  The side altars and the original high altar of St. Patrick Church had been constructed for Mass to be offered facing God.  With people technically absent, it makes no sense to face the people during the Mass.  (We do not live-stream the daily Mass, only on Sunday.)

Truth be told, I have gained a greater appreciation for Mass celebrated with the ancient ad orientem orientation.  Follow my thought process for a moment.  The priest is offering a sacrifice to God (not to the people) so shouldn't the priest be facing in His direction (ad orientem)?  The ancient tradition was to face east towards the rising sun which would bring to mind the rising (Resurrection) of the Son of God and await His Second Coming.  While many churches are not necessarily built facing east, the priest can still face liturgical east when offering Mass.  While some have referenced this orientation as the priest having his back to the people, actually the priest and people are facing a common direction towards God.  It was only about a half-century ago that the priest began facing the people during Mass.  For centuries, this was not the case.

During the past 50 years, so many beautiful high altars in churches were dismantled or destroyed.  They were replaced by less attractive table-like altars, mostly in the name of liturgical reform.  Thankfully, our high altar and our side altars at St. Patrick remain essentially the same as they were when the church was constructed (1909).  Despite my sadness of not having the regular congregation present at Mass, a small blessing was being able to offer Mass at the beautiful high altar during Holy Week and at the similarly beautiful side altars—especially the Blessed Virgin Mary side—during the month of May.

I await the day when you will once again join me at Mass!

Fr. Ed Namiotka

Pastor

What to Believe?

Dear Parishioners,

One thing I took from my college seminary education was to be a critical thinker.  I do not swallow hook, line and sinker everything I am told without first examining and questioning matters on many levels.  While I truly try to see the best in people, I realize not everything you think you observe and what people tell you are always correct.  Unfortunately, people lie and try to manipulate others.  Circumstances are not always what they appear to be.  A person's motivation is not always what we think it is.  It is best to have some degree of skepticism and to employ critical thinking when it comes to the information that is presented to us.

 

Our ultimate goal should be to get to the truth.  My mind—what I think—needs to conform to reality.  I have heard it said in some situations: "My truth is not your truth!"  However, there can only be a singular truth.  Something is what it actually is, not what we would like it to be.  Most likely, a person is confusing truth with opinion.  We can have various opinions, but there is only one final truth.

We need to apply critical thinking to our current pandemic.  Ask those probing questions.  Do not automatically believe everything you are told.  There are varying opinions out there—sometimes even directly contradicting each other—and everyone can not be absolutely correct at the same time.

Doctors, scientists and others differ whether continued, prolonged social distancing is really in everyone's best interest.  Maybe for the elderly, those with compromised immune systems and in certain restricted areas, it may be beneficial.  It now seems that the average, healthy person will recover from this virus.  Our immune systems will kick in, like they are supposed to do.  Yes, there may be exceptions, but that is the case with almost every disease known to man.

Are masks for all necessary or harmful?  Arguments are given on both sides of the issue.  I have read them.  Will a vaccination be the solution?  Some think not, while others want to vaccinate the entire world.  Did we need all of those ventilators?  Were the many make-shift field hospitals underused and, perhaps, unnecessary?  Did the known drugs such as hydroxychloroquine actually work when treating this corona virus?  Was the number of people dying from the virus itself (not from a pre-existing, underlying condition) inflated for financial, political or other reasons?  Did political motivation factor into decision making and policy?  Should churches have been closed universally while liquor stores, pot dispensaries and abortion clinics were left in operation?  Are voices of dissenting opinion being silenced because they disagree with those in charge?  These and other questions need to be answered until the truth—stripped of spin or bias—is uncovered.

I want to see you, my parishioners, return to Mass.  It's time.  Might some be hesitant to return?  Certainly.  Should the elderly or the sick be cautious?  Of course.  Some might need to continue to stay home for a while.  Should the average, healthy person be permitted to practice his or her faith?  Emphatically I say Yes!  According to WebMD:  early estimates predict that the overall COVID-19 recovery rate is between 97% and 99.75%.  Most people will survive this pandemic.

With time, I hope the facts do not reveal that our quarantine, social distancing, masks, etc. were a huge overreaction to a unknown virus—perhaps no worse than a really, really bad flu season—fueled by media hype, fear of the unknown and other factors.

 

The only place where I am assured that truth is found is in Jesus Christ.  

He tells us: I am the way, the truth and the life. (Jn. 14:6)  I believe Him.  Everyone else is currently suspect.

Fr. Ed Namiotka

Pastor

Parish Update (May 2020)

Dear Parishioners,

First, I miss seeing you and I cannot wait until the "quarantine" is over!  I assure you I remember you in my daily prayers and at the altar when I offer Mass each day.

I hope you attempt to watch Mass on TV (such as EWTN), or by livestream each Sunday.  Here at the parish, we began a livestream broadcast on our Facebook page (Holy Angels Parish) on Easter Sunday.  We intend to continue each Sunday at 10 AM while restrictions on public gatherings still exist.  Please realize that this is a make-shift broadcast occurring via a cell phone, not a professional broadcast from a TV studio or using state-of-the-art equipment.  Sound quality is not perfect and we only have a steady picture when the phone is mounted on a tripod.  In other words, we are currently limited with what we can do.

    

I have had plenty of time to think and to try to make some sense out of our situation.  Something that I have thought about, time and again, is that any kind of attempt at “remote” or livestream worship is not the manner in which Mass or the sacraments are supposed to take place.  Yes, these means may be beneficial to the sick or homebound.  However, sacraments are meant to be experienced in person.  You cannot receive the Holy Eucharist from the TV or computer.  You can make a Spiritual Communion, but it is not the same.  Confessions cannot be heard over the phone.  A person can only be anointed when the priest is physically present.

We need to get people back to church, back to Mass.  When I see people still buying liquor from the liquor store, I question if the worship of Almighty God is not more essential than that?  While the death of every innocent human being is tragic, how can abortion clinics be seen as essential in some states?  Do not those lives matter as well?  Websites still contend: Abortion is essential health care.  People go to the grocery stores to get food to eat and sustain themselves and even to hoard toilet paper and cleaning supplies.  How urgent do we feel the necessity of receiving the Bread of Life for our spiritual nourishment?   Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. (Jn. 6:53)

There is more than a bit of hypocrisy involved in the decisions of what can and cannot remain open during this pandemic.  Time will tell us whether our current actions/reactions were appropriate or not.  One thing that still concerns me is that people are being deprived of the primary means of grace for Catholics—the sacraments.  I am currently considering ways we can supply the sacraments to the people safely if our situation is unduly prolonged or if it occurs again in the future.  The sacraments are most essential!

Thank you to all who continue to remember the parish financially during these difficult times.  People have been mailing us their weekly envelopes or dropping them off at the rectory.  While our income is down considerably, we still have the regular bills to pay (utilities, maintenance/repairs, some salaries, etc.).  We have furloughed a number of employees since we cannot afford to keep everyone on staff at this time.

Let us continue to pray—especially seeking the intercession of our Blessed Mother—for help now and in the uncertain days ahead.

Fr. Ed Namiotka

Pastor

Divine Mercy Sunday Homily - Fr. Edward Namiotka

Easter Sunday Homily - Fr. Edward Namiotka

Palm Sunday and Holy Week 2020

Dear Parishioners,

Wow!  This is certainly different.  Palm Sunday without the usual crowds of people.  Palm Sunday with boxes of unused palm stored in our garage.  Palm Sunday on the TV, computer, tablet or smartphone and not physically in church.  Palm Sunday, nonetheless.

We begin the holiest week of the Church year.  Starting with Jesus’ triumphant entrance into the city of Jerusalem, commemorating the institution of the Most Holy Eucharist and the ministerial Priesthood, and finally recalling the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Our Lord—but you need to watch it all at home.  These are most unusual times.

Please do not waste any opportunity for spiritual growth and holiness.  As the religious sisters used to instruct us back in Catholic grammar school:  offer it up!  Make any inconvenience, sacrifice, suffering, or hardship an offering to the Lord.  Join your prayers and sacrifices to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass being offered throughout the world.  Yes, you must do it from home.  However, this is what the sick and infirm might have to do continually, week after week.

Since so much of what is going on with the coronavirus pandemic is fluid, please monitor our web page (holyangelsnj.org) regularly.  Fr. Hugh is very diligent about updating messages and information.  Typically, I have referred to the livestream broadcast of the Mass provided by the Diocese of Camden with Bishop Sullivan for people to watch.  Some other sources such as EWTN have been televising the Holy Mass for years.  Last week, after offering Mass myself, I watched the Mass from the Dioceses of Camden and Phoenix, and the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.  I watched the Mass provided from Word on Fire.  I also saw the links to many of my brother priests offering Mass at their local parishes.  Thankfully there are multiple opportunities to participate in Mass from home using the latest technology.

Somehow for me, it is still not quite the same.  The priests and I are fortunate to have our private chapel in the rectory for daily and Sunday Mass, and for prayer time in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament.  We are praying and offering Mass for you and your intentions.  My heart suffers with those who desire but cannot receive Our Lord at this time because of the pandemic.  I am not always happy with, but I am respectful of both civil and ecclesiastical authorities and their decisions concerning this pandemic.  I would not want to be in their position.

Thank you to those who mailed us or dropped off their weekly offerings.  It’s harder to pay the parish bills with diminished income.  Please remember we still have to cover the cost of the utilities and other expenses for our many properties.  Like the annual Christmas collection, we depend on the Easter collection to catch up with many of our bills and expenses.  Thank you for whatever you can do.

Being in quarantine, I have obviously had the time to think, pray and write, so I ask that you take a look at my more-lengthy thoughts on our current situation.  My blog entry is entitled The Divine Adjustment and it is linked to our parish website.

Please know that you are remembered in everything we do this Holy Week.  May Christ’s Passion, Death and Resurrection give us renewed hope.

  

God is still in charge.

Fr. Ed Namiotka

Pastor

A Letter from the Heart

Dear Parishioners,

I hope that you are able to read this message online, since the bulletins you normally receive at church at the end of Mass are not being distributed as usual.  However, my weekly letter to you is found on my blog (fr-ed-namiotka.com), linked to our parish web page (holyangelsnj.org), through my Facebook account and through Twitter.

Be assured that I pray for you and offer Mass daily for you.   Whether it be in the church or in our private chapel in the rectory, Mass continues to be offered.  All requested intentions are being fulfilled.  If this quarantine is prolonged, we will attempt to live stream the Mass and other spiritual exercises, as many other parishes are doing.  We are trying to figure out how best to accomplish this.  I realize it is not the same as when you are physically present.  However, difficult times call for alternate measures.

The primary way we can stay in touch right now is through the internet.   The staff is not coming to the office but working from home.  All of the priests are well.  While we are certainly disheartened that we were told not to offer public Masses and other spiritual exercises gathering a crowd, we still try to open the church periodically for private prayer, hear confessions (from a proper distance) and anoint the sick (taking proper precautions).  We struggle with leaving the church open without supervision, so we are usually in the church whenever the doors are open.  I think that more security cameras for the Church and other buildings are in our immediate future.

Let me give some spiritual guidance since this is still Lent.  These crazy times do not exempt us from intensified prayer.  We should not be “killing” or “passing time” but rather using the time we are given to grow in holiness.  Pray the Rosary daily.  Read the Bible and meditate on a passage (especially the daily Mass readings).  Watch and participate in the Mass on TV (EWTN is available daily) or through various live streams and make a Spiritual Communion often.  If the opportunity becomes available, get to confession.  However, make an act of perfect contrition every day—multiple times per day is encouraged.  Participate in other spiritual exercises such as the Stations of the Cross, novena prayers, praying the Divine Office, etc. at home.

I can’t emphasize enough the importance of staying in the state of grace.  Simply put, we should not be conscious of any grave sin that has not been confessed in the Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation (confession).  If we find ourselves in such a situation, make that perfect act of contrition (renouncing all sin and professing a complete and total love for Almighty God) with the intention of getting to confession as soon as possible.  Conversion—a turning away from sin and a turning toward God—is what is required of all of us as Christians and disciples of our Lord.

It does not look like we will have any public Masses into the foreseeable future.  This unfortunately includes Holy Week and Easter.  I am really, really distraught by this.  It is such an unprecedented time for the Church and for the world in these modern times.

Pray to our Lord and to our Lady.  At Fatima, she said that in the end her Immaculate Heart would triumph.  I trust in this promise.  I always have.  I consecrated Holy Angels parish (as I had done at my previous parishes) to her care.  Remember that and be consoled by that!

Please pray for your priests, bishops and the Holy Father.  Pray that God’s Will be accomplished in all things.

 

I love you all!

Fr. Ed Namiotka

Pastor

Uncharted Waters

Dear Parishioners,

If you would have told me over thirty years ago when I was newly ordained I would be instructed that I (and all other Camden diocesan priests) could not offer public Mass for the people, I would think that you were out of your mind.  Never in a million years would this happen!  So I thought. 

Where are we?  In some communist nation persecuting the Catholic Church?  Are we being oppressed by some ruthless dictatorship?  Are we currently living in hiding in some underground Church?  Nope.  Not at all.

It’s all because of a virus.  COVID-19.  A coronavirus. They call the situation a pandemic.

Today (3/16/2020) started out well and rather routine: morning Mass followed by some daily confessions.  I also decided that I would do something spiritual to combat the situation we face with this pandemic.  There are such precedents in the history of the Church.  Pope St. Gregory the Great had a Eucharistic procession in the 6^th century to battle the plague.  Bishop Joseph Strickland of Tyler, Texas tweeted out a request for simple Eucharistic processions around churches.  This was my thought:  Why not expose the Blessed Sacrament for a time of Eucharistic adoration, bless the people in the church and then bless the parish/town?  I did just that.

While I heard confessions, the Blessed Sacrament was exposed for prayer and adoration.  When I finished with the last penitent, I processed down the aisle and blessed the people with Jesus in the monstrance.  I concluded outside the front doors of the church and blessed our parish and the town in all four directions:  north, south east and west.  Faith can move mountains (see Mt. 17: 20) according to Sacred Scripture.  I prayed that faith can also help combat a virus.

Later in the day the bad news came: no public Masses in the Camden Diocese until further notice.  The memo was initially met with unbelief and confusion.  I knew other American (arch)dioceses had taken similar action: New York, Seattle, and Newark, to name a few.  The Italian bishops have also banned public Masses until April 3^rd.

 

However, I also saw how the Polish bishops called for more Masses to be said throughout their country.

The Polish archbishop of Poznań declared that it was “unimaginable” for Polish Catholics not to pray in their churches.  “In the current situation, I wish to remind you that just as hospitals treat diseases of the body, so the Church serves to, among other things, treat illness of the soul; that is why it is unimaginable that we not pray in our churches,” he wrote.

We are definitely in uncharted waters with this coronavirus.  Will it prove to be as deadly as any virus we have ever seen?  I pray not.  Various countries, states and dioceses have seemingly taken the utmost precautions.

Will the decision to suspend or cancel public Masses be the right one in the end?  People with varying degrees of faith and belief will debate this for some time to come. 

I suspect we may have to wait for judgment day (see Mt. 25: 31-46)—when we face God with what we have done and what we have failed to do to—to see who had the correct approach.

In the meantime, what's at stake here?  The salvation of souls.

Fr. Ed Namiotka

Pastor

The Sacredness of Every Human Life

Dear Parishioners,

I begin my bulletin with an excerpt of a speech given at the March for Life in Washington DC on January 24, 2020:

 

"All of us here understand an eternal truth: Every child is a precious and sacred gift from God. Together, we must protect, cherish, and defend the dignity and the sanctity of every human life. When we see the image of a baby in the womb, we glimpse the majesty of God's creation. When we hold a newborn in our arms, we know the endless love that each child brings to a family. When we watch a child grow, we see the splendor that radiates from each human soul. One life changes the world . . . As the Bible tells us, each person is wonderfully made . . . To all the moms here today, we celebrate you and we declare that mothers are heroes. Your strength, devotion, and drive is what powers our nation. Because of you, our country has been blessed with amazing souls who have changed the course of human history. We cannot know what our citizens yet unborn will achieve. The dreams they will imagine. The masterpieces they will create. The discoveries they will make. But we know this: every life brings love into this world. Every child brings joy to a family. Every person is worth protecting. And above all, we know that every human soul is divine and every human life, born and unborn, is made in the holy image of Almighty God."

"Which bishop or religious leader is being quoted here?” you may wonder. The speech comes from the current President of the United States, Donald J. Trump. The fact that he is the first President of our country ever to attend the March for Life speaks volumes to me. Other presidents may have made a phone call to the March attendees or sent a proxy.  However, this year the sitting President was present and he spoke the above words. People who have faithfully attended the March year after year have waited decades for this to happen. 

I have stated very clearly on numerous occasions that I am neither a republican nor a democrat. I see flaws in both parties. I consider myself an independent conservative. My only complete allegiance is to Jesus Christ as my Lord, God and Savior. However, looking objectively at what President Trump said and what his appearance at the March meant to all who respect the sanctity of every human life, he deserves our applause.  I also commend Vice-President Mike Pence who is also staunchly pro-life, and Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway (a graduate of St. Joseph High School in Hammonton, NJ where I was assistant principal for a time) for her continual support of the unborn.

I contrast the above with an excerpt from an acceptance speech from Michelle Williams at the recent Golden Globe awards. As she was accepting her Golden Globe award, she spoke the following:

“ . . . And I wouldn't have been able to do this without employing a woman's right to choose . . . To choose when to have my children and with whom, when I felt supported and able to balance our lives as all mothers know that the scales must and will tip towards our children. Now I know my choices might look different than yours, but thank God or whoever you pray to that we live in a country founded on the principles that I am free to live by my faith and you are free to live by yours. So, women 18 to 118, when it is time to vote please do so in your self-interest.  It's what men have been doing for years, which is why the world looks so much like them but don't forget we are the largest voting body in this country.  Let's make it look more like us."

All I could think of was the award she was now holding instead of the child that should-have-been. I don’t know her situation and the circumstances surrounding it. What I do know is that she made a “choice” that can never be reversed and because of it she is holding a golden idol instead of a living child.

Fr. Ed Namiotka

Pastor

Michelle Williams at the Golden Globes