Twenty-First Week in Ordinary Time<\/p>\n
At Mass in the school on 19th<\/sup> March, the feast of St Joseph, I said I did not know when we would meet again for the Holy Sacrifice.\u00a0 It was not until 13th<\/sup> August that I returned to the Oratory to celebrate Holy Mass.\u00a0 The gap reminded me of Wladyslaw Szpilman, a gifted pianist who\u00a0started playing for Polish Radio in 1935 as their house pianist. On 23rd<\/sup> September 1939,\u00a0broadcasting Chopin’s Nocturne in C-sharp Minor \u00a0<\/a>Because of a German attack on the building he was forced to stop playing in the middle of the\u00a0piece and, in fact, that was the last broadcast for\u00a0Six years. \u00a0Polish Radio resumed in 1945 with\u00a0Szpilman carrying on at the exact spot in the score\u00a0where he had left all those years before!<\/p>\n The bombing of the studio features in the film, \u201cThe Pianist,\u201d which recounts very graphically, perhaps too graphically for sensitive souls, the story of Wladyslaw Szpilman going into hiding during the time of the holocaust but, towards the end of the war, being treated kindly, but secretly by the German officer, Captain Wilm Hosenfeld<\/a> who feeds the starving pianist and gives him his great-coat to keep him warm. The film doesn\u2019t recount that it took until 1951 for Wladyslaw to discover the name of the German officer and that he was a devout Catholic.\u00a0 The pianist made many attempts to have his benefactor released from the Soviet war camp.\u00a0 He was, however, unsuccessful and it was there that the German officer died. Szpilman, however, got to know his son and daughter and his son, Andrzej Szpilman was instrumental in having Wilm posthumously honoured by the Polish Government with a \u201cCommander\u2019s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta<\/a>\u201d and declared as \u201cRighteous Among the Nations<\/a>\u201d by the State of Israel.<\/p>\n Let us Pray:<\/strong><\/p>\n Lord, at the beginning this academic year, may we aware of our dependence upon You. When we\u00a0begin to lean on our\u00a0own understanding, remind us\u00a0that Your ways far surpass ours. Show us\u00a0the right paths and lead us\u00a0in the way we\u00a0should go as we\u00a0trust in Your ability to care for us. In Jesus\u2019 name, <\/em><\/p>\n Amen.<\/strong><\/p>\n Monsignor Monaghan<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Twenty-First Week in Ordinary Time At Mass in the school on 19th March, the feast of St Joseph, I said I did not know when we would meet again for the Holy<\/p>\n