BIG Production In Bellerose

If you loved the movie starring Tom Hanks, then you don’t want to miss BIG, The Musical, presented by the St. Gregory the Great Theatre Group, Bellerose, above, in Gregorian Hall. Show dates and times: Aug. 3, 4, 8, 9, 10 and 11 at 8 p.m., and Aug. 5 and 12 at 2 p.m. Advance tickets: $18, $15 seniors, $7 children. For tickets, call 718-989-2451 or go to www.sgtg.org.

*PICK OF THE WEEK: Father John Cush is hosting Woody Allen Fest, a four-part film series at Holy Name of Jesus Church, Park Slope, Aug. 6-10. The schedule is as follows: Aug. 6, Love and Death; Aug. 7, Crimes and Misdemeanors; Aug. 9, Shadows and Fog; and Aug. 10, Matchpoint. Film begins at 7 p.m. in Shepherd’s Hall. Discussion follows. All welcome.

Faithful Tablet TALK readers, the food pantry at St. Gerard Majella, Hollis, needs your help! Supplies are low and Father Josephjude Gannon, parish administrator, needs help restocking the shelves. Non-perishable goods, such as rice, pasta, beans, tuna, canned vegetables and peanut butter, are in high demand. Consider adding one or more of these items to your shopping list — it’ll only cost an extra buck or two at the checkout counter, and you’ll be making a big difference in the lives of your neighbors. For drop off times and location, call 718-468-6565.

Tablet TALK Quote of the Week: “The winds of grace are always blowing, but you have to raise the sail.” — Sri Ramakrishna

Do you feel lost, alone or bored in your marriage? Consider taking part in the next Retrouvaille, a guided weekend retreat for married couples looking to renew their marriages. Learn practical tools to improve your relationship and communicate more effectively. There are no group discussions, and privacy is paramount. The next Retrouvaille weekend is scheduled for Sept. 7-9 at the Montfort Retreat House, Bayshore, L.I. To learn more, contact Jimmy and Kathleen, 516-305-5781 or 3028@retrouvaille.org.

Embrace the last remnants of summer on the beautiful grounds of Queen of Peace Residence, Queens Village, when the Little Sisters of the Poor host their Annual Garden Party, Sept. 8, 2-5 p.m. The cost is $60 per person and includes food and beverages. Reserve your tickets by calling 464-1800 or e-mailing qpdevelopment@littlesistersofthepoor.org.

The Catholic Club of Good Shepherd, Marine Park, will host its annual golf outing on Aug. 17 at Riis Park Pitch and Putt. Shotgun start at 1 p.m. Proceeds benefit Rosary Hill Home (formerly St. Rose’s Home). For reservations, call Jimmy, 802-310-8076.

This week’s Tip of the Tablet TALK Top Hat goes to Dr. Simon Moller, professor of biological sciences at St. John’s University, Jamaica, on receiving a $900,000 grant from the Research Council of Norway to further his research into Parkinson’s disease. Born and raised in Norway, Dr. Moller has dedicated many years to studying this disease. His work incorporates the use of zebra fish and mammalian neurons as well as plants, which possess all but one of the genes that cause Parkinson’s in humans. At SJU, this grant will enable him to employ four postdoctoral researchers, underwrite the purchase of state-of-the-art equipment, create opportunities for research-based education and hopefully discover more effective ways of diagnosing and treating this degenerative disorder in its earliest stages.

Jackson Heights Youth

Serve God and Others

Altar servers from Blessed Sacrament parish are being trained to serve at the Altar of the Lord and to serve the Jackson Heights community. This summer,  the boys and girls who normally serve on the altar donned work gloves and picked up brooms and dustpans to clean up the neighborhood under the guidance of their pastor, Father Patrick Burns, above, left.

Join the TALK! Tell Tablet TALK what’s happening in your corner of the diocese. Contact Marie Elena Giossi at megiossi@diobrook.org or 718-499-9705 ext. 326.

by Father James Rodriguez

On this fourth Sunday of Easter we continue to rejoice, feeling the warmth and light of the paschal flame, divided but undimmed. However, as human beings we have a tendency to forget. Good Friday already seems so long ago. The hunger of fasting is replaced with feasting and the pounds lost in Lent come back quickly. It is all too easy to bask in the Easter light, forgetful of the clouds that obscured the sun on the day of our redemption.

As an antidote to this complacency, the Church has given us today’s readings. We hear more about the missionary trials and successes of the early Church. We are reminded that ours is a faith rooted not in ideals or argument, but in a Person who is alive here and now in our midst.

Peter continues to give testimony to this fact, to this living name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, the name in which we, crippled as we are, find healing and salvation. The courage that fills and fuels Peter’s words is not his own, for we are painfully aware of how weak he was, a fact he himself proclaimed at the beginning of his friendship with the Lord. In spite of, or rather because of this weakness, God spoke through him, winning many souls to heaven. Think then, of the possibilities that lie before you and me!

See what love the Father has bestowed on us. See your high dignity, O child of God! We live in a culture that so readily objectifies and uses the very people that keep it going. Every day in popular music, movies, books and television, the human person is reduced to a mere tool for pleasure or productivity. When will we look in the mirror and see more? When will we look to the tabernacles of our churches and see the ineffable extravagance of God’s love? “He is there,” St. John Vianney used to say. He is there.

When I first arrived at Most Precious Blood parish in Astoria, my first and current assignment, I had a minor but beautiful decision to make. At my first weekday Mass, would I use my beautiful silver chalice or one of the chalices used by any number of priests assigned here before me? The silver one, possibly 100 years old, had been given to my home parish of Blessed Sacrament in Jackson Heights 60 years ago, then passed on to me at my ordination. It is ornate, with impossibly small and intricately detailed panels depicting the Stations of the Cross. I use it on Sundays. The other chalice, the one I use on weekdays here, is simple. It is brass and bears only one decoration: a small metallic image of the Good Shepherd.

It is the Good Shepherd that called me to the priesthood. It is he who calls you, dear reader, and me alike to fidelity and charity. He lays down his life for His sheep. We are called to do no less. He, who has power to lay it down, and power to take it up again, is the One who from the cross forgives and redeems us, setting the pattern of obedience and love that would inspire the unbroken chain of broken people who love him.  The Good Shepherd, in love’s absolute freedom, died for us.

Will we then cower in fear when he calls us to imitate him?

In his riveting homily at his first prayer service back in New York, newly elevated Cardinal Timothy Dolan spoke of the temptations we all face: prestige, power, and popularity. He then went on to describe another “p-word,” one that has kept the Church rooted from the beginning: persecution. Cardinals wear red, he preached, to express their “willingness to be united with Jesus on the Cross in humbly shedding one’s blood if necessary for the good of his people.” For most of us, it is a “white martyrdom” that awaits, the slow and steady lifelong witness in the midst of a twisted and depraved generation (Phil. 2:14-15). We cannot and must not avoid giving testimony for our faith. We can’t give in to the fear that we are alone. We are not. The Good Shepherd walks ahead of and among us.

Pray for your priests. Pray whether or not you agree with everything we say. Pray because we have been called to be shepherds among you. Pray that our voices may ever resound in harmony with the one voice of the only true shepherd, who himself has called us and you to fidelity to the truth. This truth is not a list of ideals, but a Person, and that person has given us nothing less than his very self to lead, inspire, and nurture us.

    Psalm 118: 8-9, 21-23, 26, 29
    1 John 3, 1-2
    John 10, 11-18