4th of July ~ Something to think about

Posted on by Fr. Peter
The following is a poem written by Judge Roy Moore from Alabama ….Judge Moore was sued by the ACLU for displaying the Ten Commandments in his courtroom foyer. He has been stripped of his judgeship and now they are trying to strip his right to practice law in Alabama !
The judge’s poem sums it up quite well.

America the beautiful,
or so you used to be.
Land of the Pilgrims’ pride;
I’m glad they’ll never see…

Babies piled in dumpsters,
Abortion on demand,
Oh, sweet land of liberty;
your house is on the sand.

Our children wander aimlessly
poisoned by cocaine
choosing to indulge their lusts,
when God has said abstain

From sea to shining sea,
our Nation turns away
From the teaching of God’s love
and a need to always pray.

We’ve kept God in our
temples, how callous we have grown.
When earth is but His footstool,
and Heaven is His throne.
We’ve voted in a government
that’s rotting at the core,
Appointing Godless Judges;
who throw reason out the door,

Too soft to place a killer
in a well deserved tomb,
But brave enough to kill a baby
before he leaves the womb.

You think that God’s not
angry, that our land’s a moral slum?
How much longer will He wait
before His judgment comes?

How are we to face our God,
from Whom we cannot hide?
What then is left for us to do,
but stem this evil tide?

If we who are His children,
will humbly turn and pray;
Seek His holy face
and mend our evil way:

Then God will hear from Heaven;
and forgive us of our sins,
He’ll heal our sickly land
and those who live within…

But, America the Beautiful,
If you don’t – then you will see,
A sad but Holy God
withdraw His hand from Thee.

~~Judge Roy Moore~~

Southbridge Election

Posted on by Fr. Peter
Tomorrow is the big day in Southbridge we stand at the open door waiting to walk through. Several seats are open on the Town Council as well as the School Committee. An interesting thing has happened. There is no one running for a seat on the Bay Path School Committee and some people have asked if they can write my name in for the seat. All that is needed is 6 votes to win but more would be nice.

So if you live in Southbridge please consider writing me in for the Bay Path School Committee, not the town school committee. You need to write in my name:

Peter M Preble

And color in the oval after my name or the vote will not count. The only reason I am doing this is because there is no one running and if a special election is needed it could cost the Town about $10,000. So please write me in.Check Spelling

Turkey to reopen Orthodox school shut 38 years ago: report

Posted on by Fr. Peter
If this is true this is great news!

ANKARA – Turkey is planning to re-open a Greek Orthodox seminary that was shut down nearly four decades ago, Turkeys culture minister was quoted as saying Sunday.

The European Union, which Turkey is seeking to join, and the United States have long pressed Ankara to re-open the theology school on the island of Halki, off Istanbul, to prove respect for the rights of its tiny Christian minority.

Culture Minister Ertugrul Gunay said the government was inclined to re-open the school, even though a final decision was not yet made, the mass-selling Milliyet daily reported.

“Both my personal conviction and the general inclination I see is that the school will be opened,” Gunay was quoted as saying.

“The school does not currently fit into our university system, but another formula will be worked out… There is no political problem,” he said.

The minister explained the authorities were grappling with “the technical problem” on whether the seminary should have the status of a university or a vocational high school.

The century-old seminary was closed down in 1971, depriving the Eastern Orthodox Church, seated in Istanbul since Byzantine times, of its only facility to train clergy in Turkey.

The closure was the result of legislation bringing institutions of higher education under state control, an arrangement into which the seminary did not fit.

Gunay conceded that Turkish-Greek tensions over the island of Cyprus at the time were also a prominent factor behind the move.

“What happened in the past is left behind… We need to say new things now,” he said.

Keen to boost its struggling EU membership bid, Ankara has in recent years moved to improve the rights of its tiny non-Muslim minorities, mainly Greeks, Armenians and Jews.

Fr. Vakoc RIP

Posted on by Fr. Peter
Believed to be the first military chaplain wounded in Iraq, Fr Tim Vakoc — a priest of the Twin Cities serving as a major in the Army — died Saturday at 49:

Father Vakoc… lost an eye and sustained brain damage when a roadside bomb exploded near his Humvee on May 29, 2004, as he was returning to his barracks after celebrating Mass for U.S. soldiers.

In recent years, Father Vakoc (pronounced VAH-kitch) had been showing signs of physical and cognitive improvement.

A June 11 entry on Father Vakoc’s CaringBridge site noted that he participated with family and friends in a special Mass June 10 celebrating the 17th anniversary of his ordination, five years of post-accident life and appreciation for all those who were contributing to his care.

“All of us in this Catholic archdiocese are grieving with the family of Father Vakoc,” Archbishop John Nienstedt said in a statement. “We are joined in that grieving, to be sure, by the men and woman whom he served as chaplain in Iraq and those who witnessed his extraordinary courage and faith at Walter Reed Hospital and here at our Veterans’ Hospital.”

Calling Father Vakoc “a man of peace,” Archbishop Nienstedt said “he chose to endure the horror of war in order to bring the peace of Christ to America’s fighting men and women. He has been an inspiration to us all and we will miss him.

“We ask everyone to remember him in prayer,” he added….

According to a National Catholic Register story printed just a month before his own accident, Father Vakoc flew to a combat surgical hospital to be with two soldiers who had just been injured in a roadside bombing in which two others had been killed. One died before he reached the hospital.

He prayed for the soldiers who died and with the injured soldier, and then prayed with the other soldiers in the convoy who were not injured, but “in the state of shock.”

Father Vakoc’s ministry — which earned him the rank “major” — also included presiding at a memorial service for a young man killed in a roadside explosion, who just days before had talked about faith with Father Vakoc and read at Mass.

“The bottom line in helping these soldiers through the grieving process is to be present to them and walk with them,”

Father Vakoc told the Register in an e-mail. “I prayed with the soldiers who died. I brought the sacraments of the church and the light and love of Christ into the darkness of the situations.”Father Vakoc called his ministry one of “intentional presence,” and it included counseling soldiers, ministering to Catholics and soldiers of all faiths, escorting the bodies of fallen soldiers, speaking with soldiers’ family members and keeping up morale.

“I live with the soldiers, work with them, eat with them, care for them, listen to them, counsel them,” Father Vakoc told the Register. “The soldiers know if you are real and genuinely care or not. The soldiers see me out there with them and that makes a difference.”

Thanks to Rocco for this post

Balanced Life

Posted on by Fr. Peter
So I have decided that I need to have more balance in my life. How do I achieve this? Well for one I have been listening to Dave Ramsey on his radio show about money and how we get out of debt. I have a little debt left over from seminary and I have been struggling to pay it off. Well Dave has a plan that he talks about in his book the Total Money Makeover. First you put $1,000 in the bank as your emergency fund. Next you make a list of all your debts smallest to largest. This is called the debt snowball. Start paying the on the smallest one whilst still paying the minimum on all of the others. Pay off the smallest as soon as possible and then put that money along with the minimum towards the next one, and so on until they are all gone. If you listen to the show you hear person after person calling in. The other step is to cut up the plastic you don’t need it.

After money weight and exercise is another plan. Another podcast I have been listening too has got me on the path. So first I am not on a diet I am changing the way I think of food and changing my lifestyle. So here is a typical days food:

Breakfast – Oatmeal and a yogurt
Lunch – 2 slices of 100% whole wheat bread, mustard,1 oz of turkey, 1 slice American cheese, slice of tomato and a bit of lettuce. Either an apple, yogurt or 1 oz of nuts.
Supper – a regular meal with the regular portions not the super size thing. usually a piece of chicken, rice and some veg.
Lots of water and at mid morning and mid afternoon a little snack. Either a yogurt, apple, or 1 oz of nuts. Not I use the apple cuz it’s what I like but fruit is fruit.

Food is not enough, exercise is the other part of it. I need to walk everyday. I would like to get to running again and would like to be able to run a 5k by the fall. So how do we do that? A little surfing around the net and I found a plan. Start with walking 30 mins per day and one day do 40 mins, then 40 mins the next week and so on, the start to run a little at a time. More on this as I get closer to running. Anyone know of a 5k in Massachusetts in the Fall?

So that’s it. Monday will be weigh in day and I will post all of that here or on facebook or both. Maybe you will want to join me, just let me know.

Father’s Day

Posted on by Fr. Peter
Today was a great day at church! We had a small but mighty crowd and a nice extended coffee hour after the Liturgy. For the last three years Vasile has been our cantor. He has been here on a Visa from Romania that the church sponsors. He has run into a little snag and he has to return to Romania for a little time. Today at the coffee hour we wished him well and asked him to come back to us very soon.

They also surprised me with a birthday cake. My birthday is not for another week but we will be celebrating Liturgy with our friends at St. Nicholas Albanian Orthodox Church before their annual festival so we will not be having Liturgy at our place on Sunday. I know very confusing.

I continue to follow the events in Iran and will be speaking more about it on the radio show on Monday so tune in 970 am or www.fatherpeterlive.com

Another View from Iran

Posted on by Fr. Peter
I have to admit I am caught up in all of happenings in Iran. If you follow my tweets or my Facebook page you will know this for sure. But I have also been reading the blogs and today, thanks to Rod Dreher’s blog Crunchy Con he has put me on to an Op-Ed in the New York Times written by Roger Cohen from the streets of Teheran. “A Supreme Leader Loses His Aura as Iranians Flock to the Streets” is a great article and I suggest you give it a read.
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