Wednesday, July 29, 2009

THE CHALLENGES OF RACE...IN LIGHT OF THE GOSPEL......

In recent days we have observed anew the reality that racial polarization is still very much present in America, despite the election last year of our first Afro-American President of the United States. The loud outcry stirred by the imbroglio between a black Harvard professor and a white Cambridge police officer, has focused the eyes and ears of our citizens on how far we have not yet come in unconditionally accepting and responding to each other without allowing race, ethnicity, or national origin, determine our response. This latest episode is perhaps a great teachable moment for our nation and the world. Whether racial profiling, reverse discrimination, or just miscommunication, was the root cause of this incident, it is a vital opportunity for all of us to revisit our actions and attitudes and to recommit to live in a color blind society of acceptance and equal opportunity for all peoples.
As Catholic-Christians we have a baptismal calling to love one another as we live the values of the Gospel. Jesus Co-Eternal Son of God, was born into the world with the purposes of saving and redeeming all people who follow him. White, black, yellow, brown, the color of our skin makes no difference to adherents of the Gospel of Life and Jesus the Christ.
Let us pray that as the dissension caused by this latest interaction in Massachusetts, gives way to dialogue and the police officer and the professor join The President for a beer in the White House, may we strive to arrive at the fullest acceptance of each other, just as Jesus does. This incident may well be a teachable moment for our country in the power of a continuing dialogue on as important and contentious an issue as race relations. The United States of America and the World have made meaningful progress in matters of civil rights and equal opportunities for peoples of all races and ethnicities during the past five decades. And yet we have so much further to go in concretizing the acceptance and openness we exhibit toward each other regardless of our skin color. Perhaps this incident can propel us forward further into the expanse of mutual acceptance and respect for each other and put the issue of racial profiling on notice, that it has no place in our nation or the world.........Fr. Troy

MARTHA, MARTHA, SAINT OF HOSPITALITY

Dining with friends and colleagues last night in our shared fellowship and fraternity of the priesthood, was an ideal prelude to St. Martha's Feast Day, we celebrate today, July 29. According to the Gospels, the sister of Mary and Lazarus, Martha is recognized for the hospitality her family generously shared with Jesus and other visitors. Jesus was indeed close to Martha, Mary and Lazarus, dining in their home and spending quality time with this family of three in what can be described as a human interest story. Yet, despite their closeness, Jesus stayed away when Lazarus took seriously ill and died. That occurrence as recorded in John 11 : 17-27, establishes a personal confession of faith in her verbal exchange with Jesus Who proclaims Himself, "The Resurrection and The Life", by responding positively by indicating trhat she believes Jesus to be, "the Messiah, the Son of God, He who is to Come into the World". That profession of belief is perhaps only equaled by Thomas the Apostle when he proclaimed, "My Lord and My God", after witnessing to the Risen Christ. On this day when we honor the St. Martha in all of us, what acts of hospitality and generosity are you committed to share with others, today, this week, in the remaining days of summer ? The soiree I attended last night fulfilled the attributes for which St. Martha is remembered. May your current socializing with your family and friends mirror that same generosity of spirit and observe the fullness of fellowship and hospitality following Martha's scriptural lead.........Fr. Troy

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

SEEK AND INDEED I DID FIND.........

EUREKA !! It took a full month to find not one, but two, 24/7, primary caregivers to assist me in my post kidney transplant convalescence occurring soon. But, I HAVE FOUND THEM !!!!
Jeremy Lipp, and John Flores, will be my primary 24/7 caregivers Monday-Friday, and my twin sisters Alice and Alene, will lead a team of weekend caregivers, who wikll include members of the Presentation Parish Men 's Club. I am truly grateful to them and everyone who is offering to assist me in this endeavor. My Living Donor, Victor Herrera is in Phoenix from July 29-August 5, to do his testing at the Mayo Clinic Arizona. Meanwhile having been officially listed as a Transplant Candidate by both Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles, and the Mayo Clinic Arizona in Phoenix, I am in the process of battening down all my hatches, checking off my list of necessary activities, I must complete before transplant. Preparations for the first two months of my post transplant convalescence caregiving is at the heart of those necessary activities. In the next few weeks my primary 24 / 7 caregivers and I will go to Phoenix to do the caregiving training required by the Mayo Clinic.........Fr. Troy

Monday, July 20, 2009

...AND THAT'S THE WAY IT WAS.........

On this 40th anniversary Ruby Jubilee day of the Lunar Landing by Apollo XI and that, "one small step for man, and one great leap for mankind", by astronauts Armstong, Aldrin, and Collins, we are misssing today the man who brought the joyful news of the our first ever landing on the Moon to our country and the world. That man was WALTER CRONKITE. Walter Cronkite the anchorman of the CBS Evening News from 1962-1981, was voted in 1972, to be the most Trusted man in America, eclipsing then President Richard Nixon by sixteen points. I was in Kindergarten when "Uncle Walter" as he came to be known by many began bringing the evening news into our homes at the dinner hour. From then until now he has always been the newsman I most respected, admired and enjoyed. In college I learned I had another a unique interpersonal bond with Walter Cronkite, our shared birthday. As I like to tell it, I was born on Walter Cronkite's 40th Birthday, November 4, 1956. Before knowing it was Mr. Cronkite's birthday November 4th stands out for being the liturgical feast day of St. Charles Borromeo, the 16th Century Cardinal-Archbishop of Milan Italy, who put the reforms of the counter reformation Council of Trent, into effect. Among his reform innovations were creating seminaries to form and educate future priests for ordination and the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, CCD, to teach children the Catholic Faith.. November 4, 1956, the day I was born and Walter Cronkite was 40 years old, was also the day the Russians forcefully put down and squashed the Hungarian Revolution. On Friday night as I was about to come off the dialysis machine the news broke that Walter Cronkite had died in New York with his family attending him, at age 92. It made for a weekend of mixed emotions, as I have been both mourning and monitoring the news and retrospectives of Cronkite's iconic and legendary career. The integrity and trust with which delivered the news has not and will not hardly be seen again. Whether it was broadcasting theDemocratic and Republican political conventions, as he did from 1952-1980, except for one in 1964, work for which he became known as first newsman to be declare an Anchorman, the Gemini and Apollo launchings and orbitings culminating in his enthusiastic and exuberant celebration of Man on the Moon, to tthe Kennedy and King Assainations, or reporting the Civil Rights struggles of the 1950's and 1960, the news was always first withWalter Cronkite.. So Thank You Walter Cronkite for helping us make sense of world affairs for that almost hallowed half hour in front of the television as you clearly, crisply, and convincingly, brought the facts and events of the day to a waiting nation. Who of us will ever forget your nighly closing proclamation, "And that's the way it is",...this July 20, 2009. I am guessing you will now be proclaiming those words from your eternal anchor desk in God's Kingdom......BECAUSE THAT'S THE WAY IT IS. Love You "Uncle Walter".........Fr. Troy

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

1909 - 2009 "CENTENNIALS"

In January 1969, I received a clock radio from my grandmother, four months after I started junior high school. It became my window to the wider world of Sacramento and San Francisco, and on some nights to Southern California and Oregon. I used that radio to listen to news and talk, even more than music. In addition to KFBK 1530, AND KCRA 1320, in Sacramento, I worked my way up the dial to SanFrancisco, and KCBS 740, AND KGO 810. Listening to all that radio news and call in talk on a daily basis rounded me out and increased both my knowledge and my vocabulary. All of that came flooding back as I was sitting in my car this week listening to the news on KCBS Radio. A commercial was aired as I sat there listening touting the 1ooth anniversary of KCBS Radio. That starting me to thinking about Centennials occurring this year of some significance. This week the NAACP, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, is marking its 100th Anniversary. For the past century the NAACP has worked for equal opportunity and protection for all peoples of color. Civil rights and human rights have been prospered because of the foundational work of the NAACP. My college fraternity, Lambda Chi Alpha, is also lighting up 100 candles this year. A general, social fraternity with more than 200 chapters on college campuses in the United States and Canada, Lambda Chi came to California State University, Sacramento, in the Spring 1977, my first semester on campus. I was the first recruit to the Sac State colony and became the second initiate, Phi Pi 2, and had a truly memorable undergraduate and alumni experience for more than three decades now, highlighted by the honor of serving as High Alpha, (Chapter President) and High Pi, (Alumni Chancellor). Sadly, the Sac State chapter, the Phi Pi Zeta,with more than 500 total initiates in 2009, of Lambda Chi Alpha, closed its doors in May. As a priest of the Sacramento Diocese there are two centennials being celebrated this year in Sacramento parishes. Immaculate Conception Parish at 32nd Street and Broadway is celebrating the Centennial of its founding. Only miles away at 12th & S Streets, St. Elizabeth Parish, the Portuguese national parish is also celebrating 100 years since its founding. I have a heartfelt family connection to both of these Centennial parishes. Being fifty percent Portuguese, my mother's family faith life was anchored in the early years of St. Elizabeth's Parish. My grandparents were married there in 1915. My mother and her siblings were all baptized there. Growing up I remember attending services from Our Lady of Fatima celebrations to funerals and my feeling of ancestral pride anytime we went to St. Elizabeth's Church. In my adult life St. Elizabeth's has taken on renewed focus, as my seminary classmate, Father Eduino Silveira served there as Pastor from 1991-2005. Immaculate Conception Parish in the Oak Park neighborhood of South Sacramento has been a familiar experience from my youth as a number of my maternal cousins and their families lived in the parish. Baptisms, weddings, funerals and occasionally Sunday Mass, brought us to Immaculate Conception for several memorable experiences. One thing was always the same. Stationed a the punch bowl in the parish hall was an 80's something Portuguese woman, named Chapa, we kids called the Punch Lady. Ever present, she doled out four ounces of fruit punch to every child and adult who stood before her. And you didn't dare waste the punch ! More than twenty years later, weeks after I was ordained a priest, I met her again at our annual ancestral feast of the Birthday of St. John the Baptist celebration. I was then a baby priest of 30, and she was 106 !!!!!!!!!
So as these five Centennial Year celebrations occur I pay tribute to the accomplishments and experiences of KCBS RADIO, THE NAACP, LAMBDA CHI ALPHA FRATERNITY, AND ST. ELIZABETH AND IMMACULATE CONCEPTION PARISHES. May they continue to provide the very best to the people they serve just as they have provided me memorable moments.........Fr. Troy

Sunday, July 12, 2009

THE PONTIFF AND THE PRESIDENT IN CONFERENCE.........

Last week following the First Family's visit to Russia and President Obama's attendance at the G-8 Summit in Italy, The President, First Lady and their daughters visited the Vatican where President Obama conferred with Pope Benedict XVI. The Pontiff (a title for the Pope meaning bridge-builder) and the President met for 30 minutes and the topics they discussed included the Interfaith Dialogue; a shared desire for Mioddle East Peace; the President's Outreach to Muslims; and a mutual desire to fight Militarism and Extremism; a shared interest in Overhauling Immigration Rules and Practices. Pope Benedict also discussed the Catholic teaching on Abortion and Stem Cell Research, two issues where the Church and the current American Administration are in serious disagreement. Whereas Pope Benedict has just published a new Encyclical on the human responsibility for Charity exercised in Truth, which he was giving to other world leaders visiting him recently, the Pope instead gave President Obama a copy of the Vatican document reiterating the Catholic Church's opposition to Abortion, human embryo Stem Cell Resarch and In-Vitro Fertilization. It occurs to me that the meeting between Pope Benedict and President Obama sets an example for all of us Catholic-Christians. The Pope did not avoid conferring with the President, despite the serious difference of opinion between them over the acceptibility of Abortion and Stem Cell research. Pope Benedict's willigness to meet with President Obama as one head of state to another and to discuss and dialogue on a myriad of critical issues, while not ignoring to include the Catholic teaching on Abortion and Stem Cell research struck a reasonable and appropriate balance. For me this hearkens back to the University of Notre Dame and President Obama's Commencement Address two months ago. It underscores as I said then that the wiser, more constructive way for Bishop D'Arcy, Ambassador Glendon, and others to have responded would have been to attend and do as the Pope did last week, reiterate the Catholic teaching where we disagree with the President. This is not a political calculation, but our moral obligation as well as common sense. Let us continue the constructive dialogue while at the same time fully representing what we believe as Catholic-Christian Disciples of Jesus the Lord.........Fr. Troy

Thursday, July 9, 2009

FDR AND THE FOUR FREEDOMS.........

Writing on Freedom in my July 4 blog column started me thinking about the topic of freedom in our American history. And that reflection led me to the consideration of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's January 6, 1941, "Four Freedoms" speech. On a cold winter's night, eleven months before the United States entered World War II, before a joint session of the 77th Congress, President Roosevelt proclaimed : 1.) Freedom of Speech and Expression; 2.) Freedom of Religion and Worship; 3.) Freedom from Want; 4.) Freedom from Fear. Freedom of Speech and Expression is one of the hallmark rights of the American Experience. It is our individual and collective right as a free people unfettered by a monarch or a dictator, to speak our opinions openly and honestly, knowing with the courage of our convictions that we will not be imprisoned or penalized for what we say. Freedom of Religion and Worship are ingrained in the American Experience from the very founding of the 13 Colonies. The right to believe in God, or not belief, and the opportunity to worship freely, or choose not to participate, is a right of freedom we as Americans cherish. Freedom from Want is a principle of the American Experience that closely parallels the Gospel value of providing for the needs of all in the community. The economic reality of this freedom challenges us to balance our free market philosophy with Christian charity, so that we do not become enslaved to capitalism run amok. Freedom from Fear is another principle of the American Experience that reflects the Judeo-Christian experience of God's Word. Our ability to be free from fear is grounded in the most repeated words found in the Bible, "Be Not Afraid", "Fear Not". President Roosevelt's words on the Four Freedoms have stood the test of time and are as true today, nearly seventy years later as they were when he first proclaimed them. America and the World have every reason to reaffirm and sustain these Four Freedoms and to live these Four Freedoms with gratitude and an unconditional commitment to keeping them a viable possibility for all peoples.........Fr. Troy

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

I NEED YOU : POST TRANSPLANT CAREGIVERS UPDATE

Having retained one of the two necessary primary caregivers I will need in the first two months of my post kidney transplant convalescence period, I am still seeking a second primary person to provideme with 24/7 caregiving. Others are also still needed to supplement them, especially on the weekends. Can you give me a day or two of care and companionship, by agreeing to spend a weekend with me in either Los Angeles or Phoenix after my kidney transplant ? Helping me with the basics of daily living - grooming, meal preparation, medications monitoring, exercise and recreation, companionship. The initial response of so many to my caregiver help request has elicited a common reply I am hearing over and over, " I would be glad to help you were it not for my work and other obligations". Well, this may be your opportunity to assist without having to do anything but take a mini weekend vacation. And whether it turns out that the transplant takes place in Los Angeles or Phoenix, both are sunny places to spend some time in. Come for a weekend visit with me and invest a little of your time and energy in helping me prepare to return to the resumption of my fulltime priestly ministry. I NEED YOU.........All are welcome to assist me, as families with children and teenagers can make it a south state or southwest family holiday, while also making a personal contribution to helping me in my convalescence. I am confident more than enough of you will answer my call.
CAN YOU ? WILL YOU ? Here's how.........Call me at
916-485-1841 or at Presentation Parish 916-481-7441, ext. 12.........Fr. Troy

Saturday, July 4, 2009

.........BORN ON THE 4TH OF JULY.........

"We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men (people) are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
Those words are some of the most memorable words in American history, learned and recited by students in schools throughout the land. From the pen of patriot Thomas Jefferson, who became the 3rd President of the United States, those words and the document they introduce, set in motion the American Experience of Independence and freedom. 233 years ago today, July 4, 1776, the 13 colonies of a world renowned Empire declared their independence from England and formed the United States of America. Those 13 colonies were forged and formed in emancipation on the bedrocks of freedom, justice, liberty, and opportunity. Through the 19th and 20th centuries the spirit of independence that set our nation in motion continued to evolve and expand as citizens settled further territory north, east, west, and south of the colonies, establishing a union of 50 sovereign states. And the foundational principles inherent in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States, and the Bill of Rights,- freedom, justice, liberty, and opportunity, continue to ring out as a clarion call to all Americans summoning us to value our independence. As we celebrate this Independence Day 2009, with parades, picnics, barbeques, and fireworks, let us remember the Spirit of '76, two and a third centuries later, with the concerted dedication and focus of our forebearers and founders. We do that by our individual and mutual commitment to making and maintaining these United States as a freer, more just, liberated, equal opportunity, oriented nation. Our commitment to those foundational principles are as important here and now as ever before, if we are to bring peace and prosperity again to our country and the world. Happy 4th of July. May this national holiday weekend renew our willingness to make the USA all it can and should be for the common good of all our peoples. Happy Independence Day and may God Bless America always.........Father Troy

WELCOME TO MY BLOG

I AM GLAD YOU ARE HERE VISITING MY BLOG, "INSIGHTS INTO LIFE AND FAITH BY FATHER TROY DAVID POWERS"

ENJOY READING MY REFLECTIONS ON CURRENT AND HISTORICAL CIRCUMSTANCES FACING THE PEOPLE OF GOD IN THE WORLD.

TELL YOUR FAMILIES AND FRIENDS TO JOIN YOU HERE.

GRATEFULLY YOURS,

REVEREND FATHER TROY POWERS

Followers

Blog Archive