Krakow

Indeed it is. I must apologize for the silence; unfortunately, I am the only inhabitant.

In any case, i welcome you to the region. Feel free to tour Wawel and its Cathedral along with the other sites of Krakow. I wish you a warm stay!

Cieszyn, I must be off to my next region. God bless you on this Lenten season!

Christmas Message, Advent 2011
Given by HH Prelature Pope Gregory
Prelature Pope of the VRCC
Sovereign Pontiff of Vatican II

Every year, for as long as I can remember and have been on NS, the Prelature Pope has given a Christmas message to not only the VRCC, but the world as a whole and to those regions which were gracious enough to grant the Holy Father stay. As I now am tasked with giving this greeting, I find that I am unsure about what I want to write.

A lot has happened in the last year. In the VRCC, I returned from retirement to assume the Prelature Papacy, essentially as an interim Prelature Pope. In the NS world, regions have grown and fallen. The UKB, a region with which I was intimately connected, a cycle of inactivity and metamorphosis has altered the nature of the region, I cannot say whether for the better or worse, but certainly a change which has made the core region, that in which I ‘grew up,’ unrecognizable. In the world as a whole, we have seen the fall of tyranny in the Middle East and in Northern Africa, the triumph of freedom being felt with the rise of the Arab Spring. The ‘Occupy’ movement has moved to the fore-front of news and of jokes. The EU faces and economic crisis which could quite literally shake it apart. Natural disasters continue to affect us. I could conceivably write on any of these, but they are not very much in the spirit of Christmas.

What is the spirit of Christmas? This question draws to mind movies and stories, characters like the Grinch whose ‘heart’ grows several sizes upon his realization of the meaning of Christmas, or like Scrooge who learns a lesson on proper love and charity. These things certainly touch on what one considers to be the meaning of Christmas, but the spirit and essence of Christmas? Certainly, but I would like to submit another aspect of the spirit of Christmas: hope.

Why hope? Hope is born of faith, faith that things will be better or that something will happen or that something good will continue to happen, investing these feelings as we do in the love of God and our faith that He will protect us or guide us on the proper path. While faith is usually placed in something that cannot be seen, it is nice to have affirmations of one’s faith from time to time to remind us of our vocation. Though they should be unnecessary, because we are human, fickle and prone to losing faith when we feel abandoned by God, these affirmations of faith help us to persevere. In the Christmas season, we have a solid affirmation of faith: Christus natus est, Christ is born. What more solid affirmation of faith—assurance of God’s presence, if you will—is there than the birth of God amongst us, Emmanuel?

The presence of God among us, both God and man, is quite inspirational. Through the joy of His nativity, we are inspired to spread this joy to those of us who are less blessed than us: the elderly curmudgeon who is angry because he is lonely, the pauper on the corner who needs a meal more than a dollar, the child who goes cold because his or her parents cannot afford to heat their home. Our joy, brought on by the affirmation of faith through the birth of our Lord, begets charity, and this righteous charity begets hope in those who are the beneficiaries of our charitable acts. The curmudgeon sees the happiness he can regain by companionship, the pauper, full, gets to live another day, perhaps one that might change his life, and the child looks toward the warmth of spring and summer when oil for heat is no longer necessary. The charitable, too, receive a boost of hope. In their charitable act, the presence of God in their hearts is more faithfully acknowledged, sought after, and heard. Our hope for ultimate salvation is made firmer, and our faith becomes a bastion and stronghold to resist all manners of evil.

Christmas is about new beginnings. With the birth of the Christ, a new beginning of its own right, the Catholic Church begins a new liturgical year. The year itself begins anew as we set for ourselves New Year’s Resolutions which we hope to follow and fulfill. We begin the year full of optimism and hope: “This year will be different! This year will be better!” In our hopefulness, we take chances, inviting long-lost family members to our celebrations or celebrating the holidays with family members who irk us. We seek to mend relations, rebuild burnt bridges, extending the hand of fellowship to all in our joy and with hope.

This is the essence and purpose of the Prelature Papal Christmas message: to extend the hand of fellowship to all in the hope of another year of peaceful relations (or a year of mending relations) through the peace of Christ our Lord. In prosperity and need, faithfulness and unfaithfulness, happiness and sadness, we must always cling to the hope inspired by this season. An irony, writing of hope, it was only through my hope that God would guide me in what I wrote that I ended up writing this. Preserve hope always, keeping faith in God that He is guiding you on your discerned path, even with great trial, and you will persevere. I guess I knew what to write about after all.

May God bless and keep you and yours in this Christmas season, and may you never despair.

Merry Christmas!

And a Merry Christmas to you, good sir! Thank you for not only the kind words and encouragements of peace, cooperation, etcetera, but also the wonderful speech you've left us here; it is certainly appreciated. We enjoyed your company a great deal, if only for a little while.

Hoping to see a member of the VRCC visit us again soon, so long!