In preparation
for the movement of St. Boniface
Community
I offer the
following words and meditations
St. Boniface,
known as the apostle of the Germans, was an English Benedictine monk
who gave up being elected abbot to devote his life to the conversion
of the Germanic tribes. The Church already existed in Germany when
he arrived but was in disarray. Through his willingness to leave his
home of many years and his family and friends, the church of Germany
grew in faith and love. He strengthened the existing Church which he
found in Germany and laid the groundwork for the future.
In the middle
1800’s a group of German immigrants came to Jersey City to establish
a new life. They left behind family and friends and journeyed to a
new place filled with promise and hope. Through hard work and great
sacrifice they built a home for themselves. In this home a place was
set aside as sacred to build a Church not just a building but a
sacred space where God’s presence could be celebrated in their
lives. This sacred place included a building called St. Boniface in
memory of the Apostle to the German People, their chosen Patron to
lead their Church.
In her voyage
across the ocean of this world, the Church is like a great ship
being pounded by the waves of life's different stresses. Our duty is
not to abandons ship but to keep her on her course.
Let us stand fast in what is right, and prepare our souls for trial.
Let us wait upon God's strengthening aid and say to him: "O Lord,
you have been our refuge in all generations."
Let us trust in him who has placed this burden upon us. What we
ourselves cannot bear let us bear with the help of Christ. For he is
all-powerful, and he tells us: "My yoke is easy, and my burden
light."
Let us continue the fight on the day of the Lord. The days of
anguish and of tribulation have overtaken us; if God so wills, "let
us die for the holy laws of our fathers," so that we may deserve to
obtain an eternal inheritance with them.
from a letter by Saint Boniface
Since this sacred
place was a living and breathing community it took on a life of its
own and welcomed all in the area to a safe harbor. Each new wave of
immigration found a home here. When in the last part of the 1900’s
the Spanish from various countries came to Jersey City like German
immigrants of the past, they too established a new life. They left
behind family and friends and journeyed to a new place filled with
promise and hope. Through hard work and great sacrifice they built a
home for themselves. In this home a place was once again set aside
as sacred to build a Church not just a building but a sacred space
where God’s presence could be celebrated in their lives. This sacred
place included a building from the past a gift from previous
immigrants called St. Boniface in memory of the Apostle to the
German People. The gift was received and cherished, restored and
renewed and once again will be a safe harbor for a new generation of
families.
In the words of
St. Boniface the Church is on a voyage. This journey is a never
ending awaking to the presence of God in today’s world. This journey
celebrates the past but is not trapped in the past. It celebrates
the present but is not living only in the present it is preparing
for the future so that all may find a safe place not a building but
a Church. Like St. Boniface of old it is time to journey to a new
place to make sure the Church is alive, welcoming and healthy. For
this purpose, we are not abandoning our ship but moving it to a new
harbor. Come Journey with us and build a future.
With this in mind
the journey is not ended for St. Boniface but moving in a different
direction. St. Boniface will become a corner stone for the future.
Upon it will stand a living, breathing, life giving community. Wait!
That is what it was in the past, that is what it is now, and that is
what it will be in the future.
St. Boniface as living
cornerstones around Resurrection Parish
On Sept.17, 1872,
classes opened in Saint Boniface School with an enrollment of
sixty-five children.
Therefore we will
transport the 4 Evangelists located on the Altar of St. Boniface to
the 4 corners of our Middle School. This will be a sign that the
Gospel preached from St. Boniface is still being preached to the 4
corners of the World.
The Guardian
Angels on the Altar will be given to our primary Campus as a sign
they are still watching over us today and tomorrow as they have in
the past.
The Altar and
furnishings will be used to create a Blessed Sacrament Chapel to be
used for daily Mass. This Chapel will be located in St. Mary’s
Church
The Liturgical Art
will be part of this Chapel.
The St. Boniface’s
Statue will be located in St. Boniface Chapel in St. Mary’s Church
The Memorial names
of the restoration of the 90’s will be moved to this chapel
The sound system
will be used in Marian Hall
The Stain Glass
door of the Sacristy will become part of the new Chapel in St.
Mary’s High School.
The inner Stain
Glass door will become part of the dinning room of the Rectory.
I would like to
somehow make the Stations of the Cross portable to be used for
outdoor processions in the future.
The Church of St.
Boniface lives in its people not in it building. The word Church
used in Matthew Gospel is Ekklesia in Greek the “gathering up of
people”. We are the “the gathered up” Where we gather the Lord has
promised to be there. This journey is not an easy journey. As in any
journey you have to “let go” and you have to “take up”
Once again we ask
our Patron, St. Boniface, to help us with this journey and this
difficult time.
Let us trust in him
who has placed this burden upon us. What we ourselves cannot bear
let us bear with the help of Christ. For he is all-powerful, and he
tells us: "My yoke is easy, and my burden light."
from a letter by Saint Boniface
Let us ask the
Lord to be with us and to guide us.
Matt. 16:17-18
17Jesus said
to him in reply, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and
blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father. And
so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my
church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against
it.
The church Jesus is talking about is not a building but a communion
of people gathered in his name to celebrate our identity as sons and
daughters of God.
Dear Lord, in this trying time when my life is being disrupted
please help me to take consolation in your presence no matter where
we gather.
Ephesians
2:19-22
19
So then you are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are
fellow citizens with the holy ones and members of the household of
God, 20 built upon the foundation of the apostles and
prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the capstone. 21
Through him the whole structure is held together and grows into a
temple sacred in the Lord; 22 in him you also are being
built together into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.
To build this
dwelling place the future not the present must be taken into
consideration. The immigrants that built St. Boniface thought not of
their own time but of the future. Where does our future lie? 50
years from now will some ask why was care not taken to plan the
future? Will St. Mary’s and St. Boniface be both lost if we do not
make this heart wrenching decision?
Dear Lord give me
the strength and courage to care not only for my needs but the needs
of the larger Church. May the Sacrifice I offer now give a stable
presence of Your Church in the future. May this gift provide for a
dwelling place of your Spirit in the future. So another community
does not feel what I feel now.
1 Peter 2:4-5
Come
to him, a living stone, rejected by human beings but chosen and
precious in the sight of God,and, like living stones,
let yourselves be built into
a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood to offer spiritual
sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
We are the living stones. We build a sacred place for tomorrow.
Dear Lord, You have graced me to be part of you Church. Help me to
bring the life and love you have shared in the community of St.
Boniface and merge it with the community of St. Mary’s so that the
Parish of the Resurrection will be a truly vibrant spiritual house
where a worthy sacrifice can be offered to you in your name.
Exodus 3:19/22
"Yet
I know that the king of Egypt will not allow you to go unless he is
forced. I will stretch
out my hand, therefore, and smite Egypt by doing all kinds of
wondrous deeds there. After that he will send you away. I
will even make the Egyptians so well-disposed toward this people
that, when you leave, you will not go empty-handed.
Every woman shall ask her neighbor and her house guest for silver
and gold articles and for clothing to put on your sons and
daughters.
Over the last 150 years so many treasures have been accumulated at
St. Boniface. They will not be lost or forgotten. Many of these
treasures will be moved to become very intricate parts of
Resurrection Parish. The gifts of the past will be incorporated with
the gifts of the present and create a sacred place for the future.
Dear Lord, in your love help me to freely gift what has freely been
gifted to me. Help me to offer these treasures with love and hope
for tomorrow. May the tears that are shed become seeds for growth
not bitterness.
Exodus 12:33-42
The
Egyptians likewise urged the people on, to hasten their departure
from the land; they thought that otherwise they would all die.
The people, therefore, took their dough before it was
leavened, in their kneading bowls wrapped in their cloaks on their
shoulders. The Israelites did as Moses had commanded:
they asked the Egyptians for articles of silver and gold and for
clothing. The LORD indeed had made the Egyptians so
well-disposed toward the people that they let them have whatever
they asked for. Thus did they despoil the Egyptians. The
Israelites set out from Rameses for Succoth, about six hundred
thousand men on foot, not counting the children. A
crowd of mixed ancestry also went up with them, besides their
livestock, very numerous flocks and herds. Since the
dough they had brought out of Egypt was not leavened, they baked it
into unleavened loaves. They had been rushed out of Egypt and had no
opportunity even to prepare food for the journey. The
time the Israelites had stayed in Egypt was four hundred and thirty
years. At the end of four hundred and thirty years, all
the hosts of the LORD left the land of Egypt on this very date.This
was a night of vigil for the LORD, as he led them out of the land of
Egypt; so on this same night all the Israelites must keep a vigil
for the LORD throughout their generations.
The journey from Egypt through the desert to the promise land was a
long and hard journey. Many trials and tribulations caused hardship
and pain. Some wanted to go back to slavery in Egypt to stop the
pain. Others trusting in the Lord journeyed on and found the promise
of God waiting for them at the end of the Journey.
Dear Lord to stay with the comfortable and that which I know is so
much easier. But when I
do, I miss the promise of the future. Lord, change is like the
desert. It is hard and long. Give me the strength you gave to the
People of Israel to continue the journey and not give up before I
reach the promise. In You the promise will be fulfilled.
The Book of Ruth 1:8-22
Naomi said to her two
daughters-in-law, "Go back, each of you, to your mother's house! May
the LORD be kind to you as you were to the departed and to me!May
the LORD grant each of you a husband and a home in which you will
find rest." She kissed them good-bye, but they wept with loud sobs,
and
told her they would return with her to her people."
Go back, my daughters!" said Naomi. "Why should you come with me?
Have I other sons in my womb who may become your husbands?
Go back, my daughters! Go, for I am too old to marry again.
And even if I could offer any hopes, or if tonight I had a husband
or had borne sons, would you then wait and deprive
yourselves of husbands until those sons grew up? No, my daughters!
my lot is too bitter for you, because the LORD has extended his hand
against me." Again they sobbed aloud and wept; and
Orpah kissed her mother-in-law good-bye, but Ruth stayed with her.
"See
now!" she said, "your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and
her god. Go back after your sister-in-law!" But Ruth
said, "Do not ask me to abandon or forsake you! for wherever you go
I will go, wherever you lodge I will lodge, your people shall be my
people, and your God my God. Wherever you die I will
die, and there be buried. May the LORD do so and so to me, and more
besides, if aught but death separates me from you!"
Naomi then ceased to urge her, for she saw she was determined to go
with her.
So
they went on together till they reached Bethlehem. On their arrival
there, the whole city was astir over them, and the women asked, "Can
this be Naomi?" But she said to them, "Do not call me
Naomi. Call me Mara, for the Almighty has made it very bitter for
me. I went away with an abundance, but the LORD has
brought me back destitute. Why should you call me Naomi, since the
LORD has pronounced against me and the Almighty has brought evil
upon me?" Thus it was that Naomi returned with the
Moabite daughter-in-law, Ruth, who accompanied her back from the
plateau of Moab. They arrived in Bethlehem at the beginning of the
barley harvest.
The young girl was Ruth. Her whole life was in a turmoil. Her
husband was dead and her family was moving back to Israel. What
courage to follow her mother in law to a new land a new people a new
religion, a new life filled with the unknown. She went and fell in
love with Obed. They have a child named Jesse, who has a child named
King David. And many generation later from the same love and journey
another child is born named Jesus Christ.
Dear Lord, help me to understand your loving plan. You are always
involved in our lives. You know every hair on my head and every
sparrow that drops from the tree. Help me to know and trust that you
will grace this moment and Your Will will be done sooner or later.
Deuteronomy 4:32-40
32`Put
this question, then, to the ages that are past, that have gone
before you, from when God created the human race on earth: Was there
ever a word so majestic, from one end of heaven to the other? Was
anything like it ever heard?33ever a people hear the
voice of the living God speaking from the heart of the fire, as you
have heard it, and remain alive?34Has it ever been
known before that any god took action himself to bring one nation
out of another one, by ordeals, signs, wonders, war with mighty hand
and outstretched arm, by fearsome terrors—all of which things Yahweh
your God has done for you before your eyes in Egypt?35`This
he showed you, so that you might know that Yahweh is the true God
and that there is no other.36instruct you, he made you
hear his voice from heaven, and on earth he let you see his great
fire, and from the heart of the fire you heard his words.37Because
he loved your ancestors and, after them, chose their descendants, he
has brought you out of Egypt, displaying his presence and mighty
power,38spossessing for you nations who were larger and
stronger than you, to make way for you and to give you their country
as your heritage, as it still is today.39`Hence, grasp
this today and meditate on it carefully: Yahweh is the true God, in
heaven above as on earth beneath, he and no other.40Keep
his laws and commandments as I give them to you today, so that you
and your children after you may prosper and live long in the country
that Yahweh your God is giving you for ever.'
This is a song of
remembering. In it they Remember the past, live in the present,
dream about the future. The past is our gift to God, the present is
His gift to us and the future we share together.
Dear Lord, help me
to put time in perspective. All time and seasons obey you law. May
my heart be one with the times and seasons of my life. Never let me
get discouraged where I forget Your presence in every moment, even
in the moment of the cross. As I remember help me to walk in your
ways.
PSALM 80 (V 79)
1Shepherd
of Israel, listen, you who lead Joseph like a flock, enthroned on
the winged creatures, shine forth2Ephraim, Benjamin and
Manasseh; rouse your valour and come to our help.3,
bring us back, let your face shine on us and we shall be safe.4,
God Sabaoth, how long will you flare up at your people's prayer?5have
made tears their food, redoubled tears their drink.6let
our neighbours quarrel over us, our enemies mock us.7Sabaoth,
bring us back, let your face shine on us and we shall be safe.8You
brought a vine out of Egypt, to plant it you drove out nations;9cleared
a space for it, it took root and filled the whole country.10mountains
were covered with its shade, and the cedars of God with its
branches,11boughs stretched as far as the sea, its
shoots as far as the River.12have you broken down its
fences? Every passer–by plucks its grapes,13from the
forest tear at it, wild beasts feed on it.14Sabaoth,
come back, we pray, look down from heaven and see, visit this vine;15what
your own hand has planted.16have thrown it on the fire
like dung, the frown of your rebuke will destroy them.17May
your hand protect those at your side, the child of Adam you have
strengthened for yourself!18again will we turn away from
you, give us life and we will call upon your name.19Sabaoth,
bring us back, let your face shine on us and we shall be safe.
The vine from
Egypt grew and blossomed.
Dear Lord, as I
enter into this exodus moment be present to me. Look down and see
what yYour right hand has planted not what I planted but what You
planted. May Your hand protect me at Your side. Give life to this
difficult journey.
Haggai 2:4-5
But
now take courage, Zerubbabel, says the LORD,
and take
courage, Joshua, high priest, son of Jehozadak,
And take
courage, all you people of the land,
says the LORD,
and work!
For I am with
you, says the LORD of hosts.
This
is the pact that I made with you
when you came
out of Egypt,
And my spirit
continues in your midst; do not fear!
Dear Lord, take away all fear and anxiety. Send your angels to calm
my heart. Help me to remember your pact and that you spirit does
continue in our midst. As of old you have not forsaken us nor have
you left us orphans. You are always present to your people.
2 Samuel 7:1-8
When
King David was settled in his palace, and the LORD had given him
rest from his enemies on every side, he said to Nathan
the prophet, "Here I am living in a house of cedar, while the ark of
God dwells in a tent!" Nathan answered the king, "Go,
do whatever you have in mind, for the LORD is with you."
But
that night the LORD spoke to Nathan and said:
"Go,
tell my servant David, `Thus says the LORD: Should you build me a
house to dwell in? I have not dwelt in a house from the
day on which I led the Israelites out of Egypt to the present, but I
have been going about in a tent under cloth.
In
all my wanderings everywhere among the Israelites, did I ever utter
a word to any one of the judges whom I charged to tend my people
Israel, to ask: Why have you not built me a house of cedar?'
"Now then, speak thus to my servant David, `The LORD of
hosts has this to say: It was I who took you from the pasture and
from the care of the flock to be commander of my people Israel.
I
have been with you wherever you went,
David has plans and wants to build a house for the Lord but the Lord
has plans and his son Solomon will build the house. God reminds
David that he already dwells in the midst of the people. And needs
no building nor is any building big enough to house him. He
thanks for the gift but allows Solomon to build it.
Dear Lord as this move take place it is not my will or desire but
like David I must trust you. If you have plans different than mine
please help me to understand and to adjust. Today lord I place my
hearts desire into your loving hands. I begin this journey in you
love, may I also end this journey in your love.
Fr. Victor P. Kennedy
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