St. Pius Catholic Church

Hello Everyone,

Happy Last Monday of April 2010.  This morning things are starting to calm down a little bit around the rectory, especially now that Confirmation and our push to support the Annual Diocesan Appeal (ADA) is over with for now.  Congratulations to those who were confirmed by Bishop Jenky last Saturday here at Saint Pius X, we had around 60 students and 1 adult receive the sacrament.  It was also a true joy to see everyone who came out to the Confirmation mass on Saturday to celebrate with our Confirmation candidates, the church itself was quite full, which is always a nice site to see.  We also had a good start to the ADA this year and would like to thank everyone for their cooperation while we showed the video at all the masses this past weekend.  The early pledges so far indicate that we are off to a good start here at Saint Pius X towards reaching our $94,000 goal.  Thank you one and all for your generosity and support of the ADA.

This Sunday at the 11am Mass our second graders will be receiving their First Holy Communion. Please keep them in your prayers as they prepare to receive this wonderful and important sacrament of the faith.  Also please keep Deacon Paul Carlson in your prayers as well.  Deacon Paul is a parishioner of Saint Pius X, who will be ordained a priest of the diocese on Saturday May 29, at the cathedral in Peoria.  God willing, the then Father Paul Carlson, will celebrate his First Mass of Thanksgiving, on Sunday May 30 with us at the 11am Mass here at Saint Pius X.  It is always an honor, blessing, and privilege to attend a priest’s first mass, please consider coming to his first mass on May 30th you won’t regret it. 

I would like to continue to invite everyone to continue praying about joining the pilgrimage that I will be spiritual director for coming up in October.  Your not going to want to miss this trip, we again are going to: Portugal, Spain, and France, with stops in: Fatima, Lisbon, Santarem, Salamanca, Avila, Burgos, Loyola & Lourdes from October 9-19, 2010.  Then there is also a post-trip excursion, for four more days in France, available for an extra fee to: Nevers (This is where St. Bernadette's incorrupt body is), Lisieux (To see the Carmelite Monastery where Saint Therese of Lisieux was a nun), Rouen, and Paris.  All the details and information, as well as, registration are available at: www.pilgrimages.com/frzorjan

For those who listen to the Christian Music Station K-Love here in the Quad Cities.  There are a couple of great Christian concerts coming up at the Adler Theater.  First on Friday night July 16th,  at 7:30pm Casting Crowns is coming to town with an opening act yet to be named.  My brother and I plan on attending the concert that night.  Also coming to town, in October on Sunday October 24th, to Adler is Steven Curtis Chapman.  I have seen both acts before live in concert and both put on a great show.  Tickets can be purchased through Ticketmaster.

This will also be my last post for the next two weeks, as I will be leaving Saint Pius X for a brief vacation for 10 days.  I leave Wednesday and will be back late on Friday night May 7th.  I am going first to visit some friends in the Cleveland area, that I have not seen in 3 years, from Wednesday until Saturday, and then on Saturday I will continue on to Washington D.C. to spend some time with the Peoria seminarians at Mount Saint Mary’s Seminary, my alma mater, and other good friends I know in the Maryland and southern Pennsylvania areas.  Monday May 10th will be my next blog post, see you then.

Otherwise than that, there is nothing else to report.  This week in my little lesson section I will post the homily that I plan on giving in Pennsylvania this Sunday at the parish where I served at as a deacon, for one year, before being ordained a priest.  The people of Saint Mary’s parish in Fairfield, Pennsylvania will always have a special place in my heart.  This homily is for you.  It is about listening to the good shepherd, and loving as He loves us.

Till next time.


In Christ,

Father Peter Zorjan
Assistant Pastor at Saint Pius X
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"Love One Another As I Have Loved You"
(This is a homily for the 5th Sunday of Easter Year C, this upcoming Sunday.  The homily is based off of the following readings:
Acts 14:21-27; Psalms 145:8-9, 10-11, 12-13; Revelation 21:1-5; John 13:31-33, 34-35)

    Last week in my rectory back in Illinois I was reading the true story about a man who got caught in an interesting predicament.  Being that I do a lot of traveling myself I could relate to and understand his particular dilemma.  The story is about renowned artist Paul Gustave Dore who once lost his passport while traveling in Europe.  When he came to a border crossing, he explained his predicament to one of the guards.  Giving his name to the official, Dore hoped he would be recognized and allowed to pass.  The guard, however, said that many people attempted to cross the border by claiming to be persons they were not.  Dore insisted that he was the man he claimed to be.  “All right,” said the official, “we will give you a test, and if you pass it we will allow you to go through.”  Handing him a pencil and a sheet of paper, he told the artist to sketch several peasants standing nearby.  Dore did it so quickly and skillfully that the guard was convinced he was indeed who he claimed to be.  His action confirmed his identity and he was allowed to pass through the border.  Now of course this would not happen today in our society with how tight border security has become, but it does give some things to ponder this Sunday morning.
  
    Christians have always had the problem of how to tell the world who they are.  At some periods in history and still today in some places in the world, uniforms have played a very important role in announcing our identity to the world.  Think of the various uniforms of the various Catholic societies of consecrated life, which distinguish consecrated people not only from ordinary Catholics, but also from one another according to their institutes.  In the African Independent churches members usually wear uniforms to distinguish them from non-members.  This usually takes the form of white flowing gowns, with headgear and sashes of different colors distinguishing members according to their various ranks.  In the mainline churches, however, the use of uniforms or habits has become less popular.  In these churches the words of Shakespeare in Measure for Measure, “the hood does not make a monk” have been taken more seriously.
   
    The quest for uniforms, habits, badges, banners, and pins designed to distinguish believers from non-believers does indeed have its place in the celebration of who we are.  We are symbolic beings who need to express our faith in symbolic ways.  Jesus himself wrestled with the question of how to distinguish his followers from the non-believers around them.  But His prescription goes much farther than external habits and uniforms.  For Jesus the essential mark of distinction between Christians and non-Christians is not in the way we dress, but in the way act and we live out our lives.
   
    If you do not believe me, just look at the end of today’s Gospel, when Christ tells us, “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another.  Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.  By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34-5).  Love is the Christian identity.  Love is the Christian uniform.  Love is the Christian habit.  If you are wearing the habit of love, you are in.  If you are not wearing love as a habit, you are out.
   
    This is something that the saints understood perfectly in living out their vocations in this life.  As the great, Saint Francis of Assisi told his friars, “Preach the gospel at all times and use words if necessary.”  Mahatma Gandhi, last century’s leader of India’s independence movement, received his education in Europe.  Although he himself was not a Christian, he had many opportunities to study Christianity and get to know Christians.  Later in his life he commented on this experience.  He said, “I like your Christ.  I do not like your Christians.  Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”  Catholic apologist and commentator, G.K. Chesterton, the famous British convert to Catholicism in the early twentieth century, made a similar statement.  He was responding to critics who claimed that since Christianity had been around for so long, but had not solved the world’s problems, it must be a false religion.  Chesterton responded back by saying, “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting; rather it has been found difficult and left untried.”  These two quotations remind us of something we already know: too often, too many Christians are satisfied with a mediocre Christianity.  The basis of that mediocrity stems from a lack of understanding of today’s Gospel challenge love others as Christ loves us.
   
    One thing that can sometimes hold us back in our efforts to follow the Lord’s New Commandment is a false idea of what love should feel like.  We tend to think that true love is always accompanied by nice and fuzzy feelings, and if the feelings go away, that means the love has gone away too.  That’s what radio, TV, and the internet tell us, but that’s not what the Gospel tells us.  Love, true love, Christ-like love, goes deeper than feelings.  It demands sacrifice, forgiveness, self-giving, and self-forgetfulness.  Christ-like love always involves a cross.  That is what makes it Christ-like; that is what makes it true love.  If we can get this truth to sink down from our heads into our hearts, we will be freer to love more as Christ loves, and we will lead happier lives, and make those around us happier.
   
    Maybe the words of a real expert in Christ-like love will help convince us of this.  Here is a profile of real Christian love from Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta, who once said, “People are unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered.  Love them anyway.  If you do good, people may accuse you of selfish motives.  Do good anyway.  If you are successful, you may win false friends and true enemies.  Succeed anyway.  The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow.  Do good anyway.  Honesty and transparency make you vulnerable.  Be honest and transparent anyway.  What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.  Build it anyway.  People who really want help may attack you if you help them.  Help them anyway.  Give the world the best you have and you may get hurt.  Give the world your best anyway.  Why?  Because in the final analysis, all of this is between you and God…It was never between you and them anyway.”

And so I leave you today with the words of Christ our Savior, "Love one another as I have loved you."