The Christmas Miracle in Kolendy

By Helen Gwozdz Miller

This is a nativity play written in English with Kolendy/hymns sung in Polish. Basically, a tabloid is created with actors/carolers still and statuesque, except when they are singing or acting. In the words of the two interpreters, it highlights the deep meaning and significance of the Polish Kolendy/hymns. It was inspired by a Polish-American club, whose membership was interested in singing the Kolendy of its founders. Most of the members did not know Polish, but they remembered the melodies and struggled with the lyrics. Lyrics were syllabicated and were successfully taught to the members in rote fashion. Scripture readings from the New Jerusalem Bible were used to set the scene and to highlight the deep religious meanings of the Kolendy.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Feb 27, 2017
• ISBN: 9781512776638

Helen Gwozdz Miller

After her grade school years, Helen Gwozdz Miller graduated from St. Stanislaus Kostka School in Adams, Massachusetts. This is where she received her formal Polish education. (She later also studied Latin, French, and German.) After her high school years, she graduated from St. Joseph’s High School in North Adams, Massachusetts. She graduated from Elms College in Chicopee, Massachusetts with a BA in mathematics and a minor in chemistry; she also studied philosophy and theology at the Elms. She has thirty graduate credits in mathematics at Fordham’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. She has been a parishioner in several Catholic parishes throughout her life, and is currently a parishioner at Our Lady of Lourdes, Whitehouse Station, New Jersey, where she has been for more than thirty-five years. She previously taught CCD there and was a member of the adult choir, and a member of a women’s spiritual reading and faith sharing group. She is now retired, after a career in information technology. She has three children and their spouses, and eight grandchildren, and resides with her husband, Frederick, in Clinton Township, New Jersey.

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Copyright © 2017 Helen Gwozdz Miller.

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and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

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Interior images by Ron and Joe.

Cover image by Ron and Joe.

Excerpts from The New Jerusalem Bible, copyright © 1985 by Darton, Longman & Todd, Ltd. and Doubleday, a division of Random House, Inc. Reprinted by Permission.

ISBN: 978-1-5127-7664-5 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-7663-8 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017902575

WestBow Press rev. date: 2/27/2017

Contents

Introduction

Frontispiece: The Featured Kolendy

Nativity Play: The Christmas Miracle in Kolendy

Lyrics and Actions

Music Scores

For my husband, Frederick H. Miller,

for my children and their spouses,

and especially, for my grandchildren.

And for the members of the

Polish American Citizens Club

Whitehouse Station, New Jersey.

And for the parishioners of

Parish Community of Our Lady of Lourdes

Whitehouse Station, New Jersey.

And for the parishioners of

St. John Paul II Parish

Adams, Massachusetts.

Polish Kolendy

Christmas symbolizes our hope for peace and our wish to praise