2 Volume XLIV No. 3 Pastor Fr. Robert Whelan Editors Barbara O’Keefe Anne O’Connell Art Director Catherine Jones Staff Deacon Ernesto Avallone Maria Franzetti Peggy Buckley Vilma Greene Valerie De Mato Marushka Sequeira Palha Peggy Devine Ann Reisig REFLECTIONS is published quarterly with seasonal issues dur- ing Fall, Winter, Spring and Summer. Submissions for inclusion in these issues must meet deadlines of September 15, December 15, March 15 and June 15. As always, we welcome input from all parish organizations and individuals. Keep in mind that we cannot reproduce any copyrighted material but any original ma- terial can be placed in the REFLECTIONS box in the Rectory – or contact Barbara O’Keefe at 718-352-0210 or email [email protected] Monthly meetings are held on the first Thursday of the month at 7:30pm in the Rectory, but check the weekly Bulletin for confirmation. New members and ideas are always welcome. All Rights Reserved. OUR LADY OF THE BLESSED SACRAMENT CHURCH 34-24 203RD Street, Bayside, NY 11361 3 718-229-5929 Table of contents Pope Quote 2 Matthew Kelly on Prayer 5 The Prayer Process 8 Bradley Chen and the Rosary Altar Society 9 OLBS Online- Thanks to Andrew Mussalli 12 Msgr. William Flood, 1931-2020 14 A Message from Msgr. Flood as He Moved from OLBS to 16 Immaculate Conception Center Restaurants Open During the Pandemic 17 Korean Martyrs 18 Won’t You Be My Buddy? 21 Lockdown and Isolation 23 News Around the Parish 26 OLBS 2020 Graduates 30 What I Learned on the Way to Online Teaching 33 Loneliness 35 The Other Contagion 37 We Remember… 40 Monthly Devotions of the Catholic Church 50 OLBS Ministries and Organizations 51 Neighborhood Parish Mass Schedules 54 4 Matthew Kelly on Prayer As members of a Dynamic Parish, we had the opportunity to view the presentation by Matthew Kelly on Prayer which had been originally scheduled for March. It was a thought-provoking presentation on prayer in our lives. He began by giving a formula: Best practices plus contin- uous learning equals continuous improvement. If we incorporate the best practices in prayer by looking to the saints, and continue to learn from their example and writings, we will continue to pro- gress in the area of prayer. Just as an earthly parent wants a child to grow into a "phenomenal decision maker," so too God wants all His children to become “phenomenal decision makers." But discernment must begin with prayer. He challenged his audience by asking if they know how to pray, to really have a conversation with God. And, further, do they believe that God speaks to them in prayer? You can only have a conversation with those who have a relationship with us, and to cultivate a relationship with God takes time. He spoke about "trigger moments." His own "trigger mo- ment" came after many weeks (or months) of dry prayer. He had begun spending ten minutes a day in the church just sitting in front of the tabernacle. He was not focused, and basically used this time to plan his day. Gradually, he began to rely on this time to organize his day. But he admits, there was no conversation go- ing on, just a mental checklist of what he was to do for the day. Then came the day when he had a problem. He spoke to God about his dilemma and asked for help. That one incident changed his life. It became clear to him what this was all about. He recognized that prayer must be a daily habit, not an afterthought to be done "if there is time left." The most important things in life are not usually on the schedule. If prayer is not on the list, then it might not get done. If we put it off, what happens is what he calls "horizontal prayer," meaning that prayer is done at the very end of the night, when we are physically and emotion- ally exhausted. More often than not, we either pay little attention to what we are doing (conversing with the Maker of the universe,) or simply fall asleep in the middle. Prayer should be done earlier 5 rather than later. It is better to get our praying done while our minds and hearts are alert, rather than to allocate small and meager leavings of our energy to prayer at the end of the day- even if we risk sleep by completing what the world considers its tasks later into the night. The next seismic shift occurs when we surrender to prayer. In a society which values accomplishment, this is the hard part. To surrender to God means that He can now take the lead, and we begin to listen to Him speak to our heart. Prayer is a process. Matthew asked "who taught you to pray? Where did we get the basics?" We need to be taught the crit- ical skill of prayer. In his own life, a man taught him to pray by praying with him. After about ten minutes of quiet prayer, he and Matthew read a passage from a book together. Then he suggested that Matthew reflect on the reading in silence and tell God what he thought about what he had just read. After they had both done this in silence, they said a closing prayer and then left the church. We learn and acquire the skill a little at a time. He urged the audience to learn to pray not only for themselves, but for others. The best way to lead someone to prayer is to accompany that person in prayer ourselves. God yearns to have a personal relationship with us - a life lived to bear better fruit. This is the challenge for the whole Church, member by member. Are we up to the challenge? Will the Church survive? It is up to us. He concluded with a story. A very rich man gave an elabo- rate party. Great people from all over the world were invited, along with some ordinary people who were lifelong friends. All were ushered into a grand dining hall, where they feasted on won- derful foods. After dinner he thanked them all for attending. In- stead of music he had invited a world-famous Shakespearian actor to read. At the end of the readings, the actor took requests. One woman requested a sonnet, another a soliloquy. Then a priest, a lifelong friend of the man, requested the 23rd psalm. The actor said that he had memorized this psalm in fourth grade, and he would be delighted to recite it, but on one condition. He would re- cite the psalm only if the priest would recite it after he did. The priest was taken aback but agreed. At the end of the actor's recita- 6 tion, people cheered and applauded. Then the priest got up, and be- gan, "The Lord is my shepherd...." When he finished, no one ap- plauded or clapped. The actor inquired, "Why did we not applaud?" He paused, then answered the question himself, “I know the psalm, but he knows the Shepherd." Kelly closed by saying, "If you do nothing in else with your life, get to know the Shepherd. The future of everything depends upon that." -Maria Franzetti 7 8 Bradley Chen and the Rosary Altar Society At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, there was this announcement in our parish bulletin, “Live Rosary Daily @ 7 PM. Beginning today, Sunday, our Rosarians, with the assistance of Bradley Chen as Host, will be praying the Rosary together live. Join this Webex meeting at webex.com.” An email from our Ro- sary President, Madeline Wrzesc, further explained that Bradley Chen had approached Father Bob asking about praying the Rosary as a parish community during the pandemic, and Father Bob asked that the Rosary Society participate. Our only response to this pandemic crisis is faith and who better to turn to than Our Blessed Mother. As Madeline recounts it, “Just about 12 weeks ago, a pa- rishioner entered my life, with a meek and kind demeanor, re- questing that we start a communal recitation of the Rosary every night of the week during Governor Cuomo’s PAUSE. That pa- rishioner is Bradley Chen whom, except for a zoom meeting that day, I still have not actually met. The skeptic in me thought this wasn’t going to work. How were we going to recruit two leaders for seven nights a week? Well, Bradley was steadfast. He felt strongly that this should take place at OLBS. The first nightly recitation of the Rosary began on April 19th and the first few nights were “painful!” We quickly learned that this technology would not have us all reciting the Rosary at the same time, so eve- ryone was “muted” and only the two leaders could be heard. We were able to bring together husbands to pray, as well as the home- bound, and I realized that the recital of the Rosary might have been their only contact during the day. Our Rosary Society has returned to its mission of prayer and good works. This beautiful devotion has become so ingrained in our lives that it was upsetting to have it end at the end of June.” 9 Every evening there were about thirty to forty participants, and prayer intentions included remembering the sick, the de- ceased, grieving family members, a cure for COVID-19, the pro- tection of health workers, children and teachers, those who lost jobs and businesses affected. We prayed to be sensitive to the needs of the poor, and for tolerance and acceptance, as well as for special intentions presented by the participants.