Fr. Jim's Blog

Today we traveled to the city of Niepokalanów which was founded by St. Maximillian Kolbe. He was a remarkable servant of God who had a tremendous devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary and was a pioneer in using technology (radio and the printing press) to share the faith.  He died in the starvation bunker in the concentration camp of Auschwitz by offering to take the place of another man who was sentenced to death.  We celebrated Mass in the little wooden chapel and then headed over to the museum to learn more about this great saint.  After our trip to the museum we travelled to Plock where we met a sister of the Congregation of Our Lady of Mercy who gave us a tour of a new chapel they are constructing in honor of St. Faustina and the Divine Mercy message. St. Faustina received her first apparition in this town.  After our tour we headed to the small town of Uniejów  where we had dinner and spent the night. The motel we are staying in is an old brewe...

Today we visited the Warsaw Rising Museum. The museum is very impressive with numerous artifacts that show the determination of the Polish people in Warsaw during an incredibly difficult time in their history where they were invaded from Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union.  I found a video from the museum in English that will provide an overview of what we experienced today. You can watch that here.   Here are some photos from our visit including the chapel where we stopped and said a prayer for all of the victims. I will try and provide a reflection of some thoughts that I had throughout the day at a later time. Unfortunately, we are on a pretty tight schedule today and I only have a few minutes for this blog entry.  After our visit to the Warsaw Rising Museum we went to a beautiful park where they have a statue dedicated to Frédéric Chopin. You can read more about it by clicking here. We then went into old town Warsaw and had lunch ...

Day 1 & 2 (Travel And Arrival in Warsaw) We made it to Frankfurt and are waiting for our departure to Warsaw. The flight was smooth and landed on time.  I was so grateful the passenger who was supposed to occupy the window seat moved to another seat further up in the plane which allowed my mom and I to use the middle seat for extra space. Even though I have had the privilege of traveling a lot, I am still fascinated by air travel. I watch the planes from the Seattle/Tacoma airport nearly every evening as they come and go from my upstairs window in the rectory.  I was able to make a visit to the Boeing Museum of Flight on my birthday last fall and learned a lot about the history of air travel. We flew to Frankfurt on a Boeing 747 and I found out during my visit to the BMF that they are no longer going to be making passenger 747 planes anymore as they are no match for the twin engine 777 and 787 when it comes to fuel efficiency. Here is an article I found which h...

Today is the memorial of St. Wenceslaus. He was a remarkably faith-filled man who didn't use his privileged birth into a noble family to exploit people but to serve Christ and promote a peaceful and just society. Sadly, his mother had his beloved Grandmother, St. Ludmila killed. She was a great influence in passing the faith unto him and this must have been incredibly heart-wrenching, especially since it was right after his father's death.  Below you will find a brilliant homily given by Pope Benedict XVI that gives a little more background about why St. Wenceslaus is so beloved and how he found his way into one of our favorite Christmas hymns!  With so much disappointment and cynicism in our day and age surrounding politics and politicians, here is a man whose faith made him very different. Let's pray for the same miraculous grace to conquer our own hearts allowing us to bring the goodness of Christ into our own everyday lives and to never repay evil for evil but to ov...

I am preparing for a 20 year seminary reunion at St. John's in Camarillo, CA. The celebrations begin tomorrow afternoon/evening, but I will be leaving after my Masses in the parish and won't get in until quite late.  I haven't seen a lot of the guys since we were ordained 20 years ago. It will be fun to see how things have been and how gracefully (or not so gracefully) we have all aged in the past 20 years. 😀 I will spend a fun day by myself at Universal Studios on Wednesday and then will head to the Sera Retreat House for a couple of days of prayer and reflection.  I am working on a reflection on the priesthood and will hopefully have that posted pretty soon.  Unfortunately, I will have to miss the Episcopal Ordination of Bishop-Elect Daniel Mueggenborg on Wednesday. I made my plane reservations about three days before the announcement of his appointment. I'm sure that will be an amazing day for him.  The reality of my upcoming transition to my new a...

I have suspected for sometime that a previous surgery I had to fix a torn rotator cuff had come undone based on pain and other symptoms I have been experiencing for the past year. I had an MRI/Arthrogram a couple of weeks ago, and went over the results with a surgeon on Thursday. He went to the images from the procedure and highlighted a torn rotator cuff. (Darn! I hate being right about some things!) He seemed surprised when he outlined the procedure and recovery that I did n't have more questions. I just told him I have done this before and wasn't looking forward to it. I will have to have another operation in a week and a half to fix this problem. Unfortunately, the recovery is exactly the same with the arm being immobile for six weeks in a sling and sleeping in a chair during that time period. This particular surgeon said he would probably start physical therapy earlier than the last one did. I suspected this operation was up and coming so while I was in Chi...

Today my Grandpa, Robert Martinson, would have turned 101 years old. He died in 2009. He was a great and gentle man who brought much joy to his family. He is missed terribly.  Today, 19 years ago, our family was devastated when my little niece was snatched away not having even reached 3 months old. That was such a sad event for our family and especially my brother and sister-in-law. This was one of those events that remind you that God doesn't always shield us from hardship and suffering but offers us a helping hand to try and make sense out of such difficult events. I remember well the love and support of so many people who attended the funeral to offer their condolences and support. Still, a day hasn't gone by since this event that I haven't remembered to pray for parents who have lost children. I guess this is one small way for me to try and put into practice a line from the Catechism of the Catholic Church I quoted last weekend during my homily It is ...