{"id":109632,"date":"2026-04-12T09:29:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-12T13:29:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/?p=109632"},"modified":"2026-04-12T09:29:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-12T13:29:10","slug":"a-pastors-thoughts-dont-be-stonat-mangia-fa-gras","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/2026\/04\/12\/a-pastors-thoughts-dont-be-stonat-mangia-fa-gras\/","title":{"rendered":"A Pastor\u2019s Thoughts: Don’t be Stonat’ – Mangia fa’ gras’"},"content":{"rendered":"

[By Fr. Jim Muscatella, Parochial Vicar, Blessed Trinity and St. Patrick’s Parishes]<\/p>\n

It’s 11:15, Sunday morning in Rochester, New York, at St. Stanislaus Kostka Parish, Polish Mass has begun. The organ is churning, the people are chanting, and American children call out to their bilingual parents in a lovingly preserved mother tongue \u2013 it is all very beautiful, and it is all very Polish.<\/p>\n

The priest, however, is not. <\/p>\n

That priest is me. Italian-American as chicken parm in marinara, Fr. Jim Muscatella.<\/p>\n

Fr. Roman, their pastor, was born, raised, and ordained in Wroclaw, Poland. After 19 years in America, he still calls out to me with a spirited \u201cDzie\u0144 dobry,\u201d meaning \u201cgood morning.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s me. With a Calabrese<\/i> crescendo of vowels, my last name begs to be sung like a Sicilian folk tune \u2013 you can almost smell the sweet vino <\/i>as you enunciate the double \u201cL.\u201d<\/p>\n

You can\u2019t give what you don\u2019t have, so I preached to those pious polacchi<\/i> from what I had: the Italian words of my grandmother.<\/p>\n

\u201cMangia fa\u2019 gras\u2019\u201d<\/i> was Mary Muscatella\u2019s sure conclusion to any prayer before supper, sung out with a smile and a laugh \u2013 \u201cEat, and get fat!<\/i>\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cTestadudo<\/i>,\u201d was the name for anyone who would think of refusing such a kind invitation \u2013 \u201chard-head<\/i>.\u201d<\/p>\n

And then there is a family favorite \u2013 \u201cStonat\u2019! (stew-KNOT)!\u201d  <\/i>The men of the family, calling out to virtually any other driver on the road, offered it as a stand-in for \u201cstupid<\/i>,\u201d or \u201cstubborn<\/i>.\u201d <\/p>\n

Truthfully, it is not. Instead, \u201cstonat\u2019<\/i>\u201d has the colorfully musical connotation of being \u201cout-of-tune<\/i>.\u201d For a delightfully dramatic race like mine, pathologically operatic in both speech and deed, this is a most cutting critique.<\/p>\n

And so I preached \u2013 how the hard bump of Adam and Eve\u2019s Fall had left us all a bit testadudo \u2013 <\/i>and when the hardness of a broken world had left us all wearied and worn-thin, Christ came a calling \u2013 Mangia fa\u2019 Gras\u2019; <\/i>take and eat; receive the gift of grace; be made whole by the God Who gives Himself for you. <\/p>\n

Hear His call – don\u2019t be Stonat\u2019.<\/i><\/i><\/p>\n

And so, we all prayed \u2013 English, Italian, and Polish together.<\/p>\n

Be careful what you preach.<\/p>\n

In the hall afterwards, I found the children fixed in attention – handling hot wax and hollow eggs. This was proper egg decoration, the Polish way. My altar servers called me over as they sketched sacred designs over the white shells – soon to be dipped in a series of pastel dyes; come Easter morning, these were to be delightful displays of their culture and devotion.<\/p>\n

One of their fathers turned to me: \u201cFather, will you decorate an egg?\u201d As I began to refuse the offer and excuse myself, I saw that smiling Slavic face take on an almost Sicilian smirk; I heard these words, now preached to me: \u201cDon\u2019t be Stonat\u2019!\u201d<\/i><\/i><\/p>\n

And so, the priest sat with his people, and the Italian made a Polish egg. He entered into their joy, instead of scurrying off to whatever he thought he might be doing – and he was so much the better for it.<\/p>\n

Sin is a sadness because it makes us all stonat\u2019. <\/i>The same God who called all of creation into being, and from the first called every part of it \u201cgood<\/i>,\u201d has never stopped calling out to us \u2013 with cheer and generosity.<\/p>\n

Christ calls to us behind the screen of every confessional, and from the altar at every Holy Mass \u2013 He comes to pull us out of the dirges we\u2019ve been deafly crooning without Him; out of the tragedies we\u2019ve trapped ourselves in apart from Him. <\/span><\/p>\n

Against the dissonance of a fallen world\u2019s despair, which has made us sincerely stonat\u2019, <\/i>He calls out with the Good News of hope and salvation; to hearts starved in sin and suffering, He beckons as if to say, \u201cI am your salvation \u2013 this is my Body, given up for you! Take and eat! Mangia fa\u2019 gras\u2019!\u201d <\/i><\/i><\/p>\n

Holiness is to hear His call. It is to delight in the God Who delights in us, and thus become a wonder to the world as we join His song of salvation. Christ offers the key: will we be stonat\u2019, <\/i>or make a harmony?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[By Fr. Jim Muscatella, Parochial Vicar, Blessed Trinity and St. Patrick’s Parishes] It’s 11:15, Sunday morning in Rochester, New York, at St. Stanislaus Kostka Parish,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":108241,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-109632","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-editorial"],"yoast_head":"\nA Pastor\u2019s Thoughts: Don't be Stonat' - Mangia fa' gras' - Owego Pennysaver Press<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/2026\/04\/12\/a-pastors-thoughts-dont-be-stonat-mangia-fa-gras\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Pastor\u2019s Thoughts: Don't be Stonat' - Mangia fa' gras' - Owego Pennysaver Press\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"[By Fr. 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