On My Way

This morning together with my classmate, Fr. Emil Furtak, we will begin our week-long pilgrimage to the holy relics of Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati in Turin Cathedral and Saint Gemma Galgani in Lucca city.

We have been there already once in August 2005. This time I feel deep need to thank Pier Giorgio and Gemma for their intercession and protection over us in Kiabakari, surrendering my Sisters, parochial workers, staff of our institutions, the mission, our health center, pre-school, primary school and our dreams and challenges to their continuous protection and intercession.

I will pray also for all of my esteemed readers and all intentions dear to your hearts. Please, pray for our safe journey to Italy and back. God willing, we will be back on Saturday in Kraków. The detailed report will follow then.

God bless us all!

Deja Vu

Deja Vu again. Well, almost. Sixteen years ago Kiabakari was flooded with hundreds of people who came for the official dedication of the Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati and Saint Gemma Galgani parochial church in Kiabakari (which has become since then the Diocesan Shrine of Divine Mercy), official inauguration of Kiabakari parish and the appointment of the first parish priest. I still remember that day as all that happened just yesterday. Great day paid with huge stress and exhaustion.

As I write these words today, on the same date, there are no guests in Kiabakari at this particular point of time. In two weeks time, though, the history is going to repeat itself, in the same manner but for the different reason. This time hundreds of people will flood Kiabakari coming for the ordination to priesthood of our parishioner, deacon Augustino Mapambano. The stress, struggle and challenge is the same if not bigger as I am no longer the vibrant and full of youthful power priest. Time has taken its toll and I can't work 24/7 in full steam anymore. That is why we started preparation well ahead of time. Still, the last two weeks are the most hectic ones and most stressful. I know it very well from my own experience. Gone through that period so many times in my life. I pen these words sitting at the food outlet in Musoma, picking up things for the construction of development projects, buying various items needed for the ordination and thanksgiving Mass, making numerous phone calls here and there. Just to make sure we are ready.

Please, pray for us! And I will pray for you and for all your intentions today, in the afternoon solemn Mass on the day of obligation for the faithful of Kiabakari who will come to thank God that He wanted to be God-with-us and built a house for himself in our midst, which was handed to Him exactly sixteen years ago.

Full Circle

Today is the seventh anniversary of the death of my classmate, Father Piotr Wrona. I will have honor to visit his parents in Krowodrza district of Kraków and present to them a special photo album of the pictures taken during the very first Mass celebrated in St. Gemma Galgani convent in Kiabakari on April 11 last year, the day after the official blessing of the convent, in which we used for the first time the chalice and patena which once belonged to Father Piotr and were offered to me by his parents. I wrote extensively on this topic in my previous posts (see here, here and here), so I won't repeat myself. It will certainly be an emotional moment later today and I am looking forward to it. The whole story will make the full circle, since the day I was presented the chalice, then the Holy Mass and now reconnecting with his parents to present this special album. I think Father Piotr in heaven and his parents in Krowodrza will be happy to see the way we honored him and commemorated that very special day. May his soul rest in peace!

On The Mountain

We spent the whole day on the mountaintop with the Lord in the Mystery of His Sacred Heart. Challenging day for me pastorally as a retreat master and the only confessor available for today. Thanks be to God, everything went as planned, people attended very well the second day of the peregrination of the Jubilee Cross in the parish.

First Mass

Yesterday evening my fellow Polish priests and myself celebrated the very first Holy Mass in the chapel of the new convent, just the day after the official opening of the convent done by Bishop of Musoma, Rt. Rev. Michael Msonganzila. It was a solemnity of St. Gemma Galgani, the Saint Patron of the convent. And a very emotional moment for me as I kept saying to Gemma in my heart that my dream of preparing a religious house for her came true, and that first Mass was a great proof of the fulfillment of that promise, because we celebrated the Mass on her feast day in her convent in Kiabakari. And more so, using the chalice and patena of my late classmate, Fr. Piotr Wrona, on the day of his death six years ago, the chalice and patena, which were given to me in December by his loving parents. Here are a few pictures from yesterday's Mass...

Peas And Cabbage

This is a typically Polish expression when there is mix of different events, things, usually not matching and happening at once. The suitable expression for what is going on this weekend and beyond...

Miracle

Today we have witnessed a miracle. In the morning, before we set off to Musoma for shopping with sisters, I called a manager of Tanesco in Musoma, reminding him of our conversation and my request to connect the convent with the power line. I paid in full last week, but the manager told me that normally it takes time for them to react as the demand is growing and their manpower not capable of responding to demands as fast as they wished...

110th Anniversary

Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati, Saint Patron of the parochial church in Kiabakari, Saint Patron of Kiabakari Parish and Saint Patron of our health center, was born on April 6, 1901. Today is the 110th Anniversary of his birth. And the twentieth anniversary of my intimate relationship with him as a leading force and guardian of what I've trying to accomplish here in Kiabakari since 1991 when I met him under extraordinary circumstances in my life and on the way to find support for the construction of Kiabakari mission...

The Last Three Things

"At last St. Gemma got her house she was waiting for for so long..." said Sr. Mary, the local superior of my sisters' community, smiling broadly and clapping hands. I have never seen her so jovial and happy. No wonder, I was ballistically happy and wanted to jump with joy, relief and satisfaction... Today is a day I have been waiting for far too long...

Closer

Getting real close now to the moment my sisters will move to their new convent. It will be the very day they will spend outside of my rectory since they came on January 3, 2010. The very first day and the very first night in their new house. It took us fifteen months to accomplish this task. A huge relief to them and to me as well. Today we finish all construction works outside the house, in their plot (mainly in the gates and fabricating spare keys to all doors so I keep spares at home, as this is my policy in this mission that every door in all buildings must have its spare key in my safe), do the general cleaning of the house and put all things that are ready to go (most of the donated by me and my foundation Kiabakari) - like set of sofas, gas stove, automatic washing machine, deep freezer etc. Once Tanesco fix the service line to the convent, the house will become fully operational. This - I hope - will be done in a couple of days, so before we open the house on next Sunday, sisters will there already. My mood is more and more jovial!

Fools' Day

It may be an April 1st, the Fools' Day, as the opener of a new month in 2011 calendar, but there is nothing to fool around in this month, to be honest. Rather, a very serious stuff on the way, and what I want to share with you today is no prank or joke whatsoever...

Towards The Liberation

The last day of March. A month that brought a lot of mixed emotions and turned out to be a hectic time for me... The dominating agenda was, obviously, the final stages of the construction and finishing works on St. Gemma Galgani convent in my mission...

Restorer Of Ruined Homesteads

Looking at pictures taken at the beginning of the re-construction of sisters' covent and these taken today as we close in on the day of the completion of this project, I officially declare myself 'A Restorer of Ruined Homesteads' as today's first reading of the Saturday after Ash Wednesday puts it: < they shall call you, “Restorer of ruined homesteads.” > (Is 58)

The Flower of Lucca

I woke up this morning, ready to tackle the present piece of time in two different ways simultaneously. Firstly, to continue celebration of the mystery of the Nativity of Christ through the liturgical Octave till the New Year and then in days following the Octave till the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord. Secondly, to get on energetically with three projects at once - the finishing of piping of the water tank, the finishing and furbishment of first grade pupils classroom in John Paul II Center for Education and Formation, and the construction of service buildings and the repair and finishing of St. Gemma Galgani Convent for my sisters...

The Deadline

I'm extremely glad that my bishop, the bishop of Diocese of Musoma, Rt. Rev. Michael Msonganzila, took his time to come and visit us here in Kiabakari this afternoon, while on his way back from the meeting with priests who formerly belonged to the Diocese of Musoma, but now will become a part of the presbyterium of the recently announced new diocese of Bunda. When they announced the creation of this new diocese, I thought initially that Kiabakari will become a part of the new diocese as we are neighbors with Bunda parish which has become now a capital city of the Diocese of Bunda (some 30 km only from Kiabakari)...

Triduum Sacrum

No, I am not talking about THE Triduum Sacrum during Holy Week - Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday with Easter Vigil. This is another Triduum Sacrum, three holy days we observe and celebrate in a most devout, passionate and solemn way.