{"id":8743,"date":"2022-02-12T09:00:37","date_gmt":"2022-02-12T14:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/?p=8743"},"modified":"2022-03-06T21:31:09","modified_gmt":"2022-03-07T02:31:09","slug":"from-fr-tom-67","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/2022\/02\/12\/from-fr-tom-67\/","title":{"rendered":"From Fr. Tom"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hopefully your week was holy and warm. <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

While in Poland<\/span>, <\/span>I learned a lot about the USA, but since <\/span>I came here in 2014, I became more interested in this country and\u00a0<\/span>its\u00a0history. (By the way, I think it<\/span>\u2019<\/span>s much easier to learn and under-<\/span>stand the history than to understand what<\/span>\u2019<\/span>s going on right now!?) <\/span><\/p>\n

So, on July 2, 1776, the Second Continental Congress met <\/span>in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and approved Richard Henry Lee<\/span>\u2019<\/span>s <\/span>motion that the thirteen colonies in North America declare their <\/span>Independence from Great Britain and from the rule of King George <\/span>III. <\/span>On that July 4, celebrated now as Independence Day, <\/span>the Congress approved the Declaration. Since then, human history <\/span>has been punctuated with many such declarations of independ<\/span>ence. <\/span>Over 40 countries on the continent of Africa, more than <\/span>a dozen newly independent republics in the former Soviet Union, <\/span>several areas in Eastern Europe (including Poland<\/span>–<\/span>November 11, <\/span>1918) and conflicting ethnic groups with differing ideologies <\/span>in many countries have engaged in civil wars and declared their <\/span>political independence from those who had controlled them.<\/span><\/p>\n

The clamor for independence can be heard everywhere, from <\/span>Hong Kong in the east to the Basque country in the west. <\/span>Independence, self<\/span>–<\/span>rule, and the prerogative of determining one<\/span>\u2019<\/span>s <\/span>own direction, goals and priorities have perennial appeal for most <\/span>human beings. <\/span>But, as is often the case, the readings for today<\/span>\u2019<\/span>s <\/span>liturgy invite us to consider human life on earth from a <\/span>different<\/em> <\/span>perspective. <\/span>The inspired authors of today<\/span>\u2019<\/span>s readings, Jeremiah, Paul <\/span>and Luke, make a motion, as it were, a motion that each of us should <\/span>consider making a <\/span>Declaration of Dependence <\/span><\/em>on God, to receive <\/span>our true blessing. <\/span><\/p>\n

The way of life is the way of Jesus, the way of the Beatitudes, <\/span>the way of surrender and dependence on God! It<\/span>\u2019<\/span>s the way of loving <\/span>service to God and our brothers and sisters that leads to eternal life. <\/span>The other way is the way of death. It is the way of self<\/span>–<\/span>centeredness, <\/span>self<\/span>–<\/span>reliance, immorality, self<\/span>–<\/span>indulgence, and immediate gratifica<\/span>tion. It leads to death and hell. Which <\/span>way <\/span>are we going? <\/span>The challenge of the Beatitudes is: <\/span>\u201c<\/span>Are you going to be happy <\/span>in the world<\/span>\u2019<\/span>s way or in Christ<\/span>\u2019<\/span>s way?<\/span>\u201d. <\/span><\/p>\n

Be blessed choosing wisely!<\/span><\/p>\n

Fr. Tom<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hopefully your week was holy and warm. While in Poland, I learned a lot about the USA, but since I came here in 2014, I became more interested in this country and\u00a0its\u00a0history. (By the way, I think it\u2019s much easier to learn and under-stand the history than to understand what\u2019s going on right now!?) So,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":8835,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[151],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8743","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fr-tom","ctfw-has-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8743","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8743"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8743\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8744,"href":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8743\/revisions\/8744"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}