I wish to apologize to all readers of my blog for keeping silent for so long. The Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy with the duties arising from it, along with development works in Kiabakari and my pastoral and spiritual duties as the Missionary of Mercy have contributed to my inability to continue with the regular service in this blog.
I do hope though that with the end of the development projects at the end of the next month together with the closure of the Jubilee Year I will be able again to share with you what is important in my life and service as a priest and a missionary in Tanzania - on more regular basis.
I pray always for you, and in particular in this extraordinary time of grace and Lord's Mercy. May He be your never ending reward.
On Tuesdays I usually have a few hours set aside for the purpose of meditating, writing, translating various texts and preparing upcoming events, homilies, retreats, seminars. It is no exception today as well. Enjoying a quiet morning working on the meditation on the Parable of Mercy - Merciful Father. On days and times like these I choose (if any) accompanying music carefully. On this occasion I have selected German Baroque Cantatas sung beautifully by my favorite Andreas Scholl. Such a perfection combination of music and his delicate voice. Two wings that carry me in tranquility into the Realm of Parables of Mercy. Come, Holy Spirit, lead me in this breathtaking spiritual journey...
Ukitaka kufunga Kwaresima ya Mwaka huu wa Huruma ya Mungu vizuri kama Baba Mtakatifu anavyotuasa katika tafakari zake wakati huu na kama unataka kubadilisha kweli sura ya maisha yako na Ukristo wako, timiza yafuatayo anayotushauri Baba Mtakatifu Fransisko:
funga maneno yanayoumiza wengine na tamka maneno yanayojenga na kufariji
funga hisia zako za huzuni na ujaze roho yako hisia za shukrani
funga hasira yako na ujae subira na uvumilivu
funga hisia zako za kukata tamaa na ujae matumaini
funga msongo wa mawazo yako na umtumainie Mungu
funga malalamiko yako na tafakari kwa shukrani kila ulicho nacho
funga changamoto zinazokuletea presha na ukuze maisha yako ya sala
funga hisia za uchungu na za kuonewa na ujaze moyo wako hisia za furaha
funga tabia ya uchoyo na ubinafsi na ujenge tabia ya wema na huruma kwa wengine
funga ubishi wako na ugomvi na upatane na wenzio
funga maneno na unyamaze ili uweze kuwa msikilizaji makini
As I look at the special stole of the Missionary of Mercy we were given by the Holy Father last week, I realize deeper and deeper the meaning and the sheer power of the service of the Missionary of Mercy in the Church in the Jubilee Year of Mercy. This stole first and foremost reminds all of us what we priests have at our disposal since the day of our ordination to priesthood.
The Sacrament of Reconciliation is a genuine weapon of mass destruction of the Evil One and of the aftermath of the desolation and destruction caused in our souls by the devil. This Sacrament is pure and victorious Divine Mercy "in action" restoring us to the dignity of daughters and sons of the Father of Mercy invited always to live to the fullest Father's Love in the deepest relationship with Him through His Life in us and through us towards others in the sanctifying grace.
The last day of the Nativity Season - the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord - helps us to focus on our own Baptism and its value, meaning and the newness of life it brings.
In particular I think about the four basic rights flowing out of the Holy Baptism. These rights we tend to neglect or forget. And that is why we live sometimes like we live - in contradiction to our dignity we received in the Baptism.
First right - the right to call God - Father. The sanctifying grace we receive in the Baptism fills us with Divine Life and make us one with God and the family of His children. We no longer pray to the Creator, to God Almighty, to 'Rex Tremendae Maiestatis". Since the moment of our Baptism we pray with confidence and inner joy and pride to our Father, who loves us and His mercy is infinite.
Second right - the right to approach the altar and receive the Most Holy Eucharist. The Life of the Father in us in sanctifying grace is strengthened and elevated even higher - when we unite ourselves with Living Jesus in Eucharist. And Jesus in Eucharist is the Guarantor that f we stay in unity with Him, our earthly journey will reach eventually the House of the Father in Heaven.
Third right - the right to be part of the living community of the faithful and to be taken care of by the community. We, the baptized, have our obligation to the community of the Church as its living members. But at the same time we have the right to be looked after the community - in good and bad times. No one in any stage of one's life must ever feel lonely, sidelined, excluded in the community of the baptized. Even when the one's house falls down because of the flood or heavy rains as we see sometimes in our communities here in Africa - everybody should come to help as much as they can to make the affected feel loved and taken care of.
Fourth right - the inheritance right. The right to Heaven. The right to the housing prepared for each and every one of us by Jesus in Father's House in Heaven. This is not a place that we will be rented or made to pay for it. This will be our place forever. Wonderful place. The moment of death for the baptized is no longer a reality which scares us. It is only a passage to eternal life in happiness where everyone is assured of one's own dwelling for eternity.
The problem is - when I commit a grave sin, I lose all these rights. In the Year of Mercy we should reflect upon the majesty of our dignity as Children of God, baptized in the name of the Triune God. We should return to the total faithfulness to our Baptismal Vows through genuine penance and reconciliation.
May God our Father help us to rediscover the value of our Baptism today and to help us to defend the dignity of being a child of God who enjoys the fullness of these four rights.
Listening to the inner voice of the Holy Spirit, while keeping an eye on the life of the Church worldwide and new and old ways to express our living faith in the Presence of the Lord, I have arrived to the decision to introduce two new liturgical services on permanent basis in our prayer and liturgical life in the faith community in Kiabakari.
The first event which is called - Bible Evening, will be held on the first Tuesday of the month at 5-7pm and in this Jubilee Year we will meditate upon the Parables of Mercy and Psalms of Mercy (first three out of ten Psalms of Mercy to be precise).
The second event will be - Evening of Praise - and will be held on Third Tuesday of each month, also 5-7pm. This year we will praise the Lord in His Presence in the Most Holy Eucharist following His Holy Attributes and Names. It will be an evening of songs, spiritual joy, allowing the Holy Spirit to move us in the praise of God in ways He Himself wants.
These events are open to everyone who wishes to set on the path leading inside the great Mystery of God Whose Mercy Is Infinite.
Welcome! Karibu!
Below are the schedules of both events for this year (May and June are excluded as I will travel for medical treatment and ordination of my compatriot in my home parish in Kraków)
"Through Mary to Jesus". This is a motto of the Sisters of the Congregation of Little Servants of Mary Immaculate (In Polish - Służebniczki Starowiejskie) which I am so familiar since the beginning of my priestly formation in Major Seminary in Kraków. The vicinity of our family apartment to the provincial house of the Sisters in Kraków-Grzegórzki made me a frequent visitor in their chapel.
Today, on the Solemnity of Holy Mary, Mother of God, I felt it was crucial to make my personal pilgrimage together with my Little Servants from Kiabakari to Cloistered Carmelite Sisters Monastery in Bunda to say Mass in honor of Our Lady at the beginning of the New Year in the initial stages of the Jubilee Year of Mercy and to commit myself to her maternal guidance and intercession in the School of Love of Jesus where She is a Head Teacher. May She lead us, may She lead me to Jesus, the King of Mercy and teach me how to listen to Him, how to follow Him, how to love Him, how to become a vessel and a tool of His Mercy.
I felt I need to empty myself completely on the Holy Mountain of Carmel in the presence of God to be filled anew with only this what is needed to become a true Missionary of Mercy in this Jubilee Year and beyond.
I came back home with my Sisters and finalize the pilgrimage passing through the Door of Mercy in Kiabakari Shrine.
"Through Mary to Jesus". This is the only proper and shortest way to learn and love Jesus and to acquire a comprehensive grasp of what really matters in our lives.
The full text of Pope Francis’ prepared homily for the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception and the Inauguration of the Jubilee of Mercy can be found below:
Homily of His Holiness Pope Francis
Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception Inauguration of the Jubilee of Mercy
8 December 2015
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
In a few moments I will have the joy of opening the Holy Door of Mercy. We carry out this act, so simple yet so highly symbolic, in the light of the word of God which we have just heard. That word highlights the primacy of grace. Again and again these readings make us think of the words by which the angel Gabriel told an astonished young girl of the mystery which was about to enfold her: “Hail, full of grace” (Lk 1:28).
The Virgin Mary was called to rejoice above all because of what the Lord accomplished in her. God’s grace enfolded her and made her worthy of becoming the Mother of Christ. When Gabriel entered her home, even the most profound and impenetrable of mysteries became for her a cause for joy, faith and abandonment to the message revealed to her. The fullness of grace can transform the human heart and enable it to do something so great as to change the course of human history.
The feast of the Immaculate Conception expresses the grandeur of God’s love. Not only does he forgive sin, but in Mary he even averts the original sin present in every man and woman who comes into this world. This is the love of God which precedes, anticipates and saves. The beginning of the history of sin in the Garden of Eden yields to a plan of saving love. The words of Genesis reflect our own daily experience: we are constantly tempted to disobedience, a disobedience expressed in wanting to go about our lives without regard for God’s will. This is the enmity which keeps striking at people’s lives, setting them in opposition to God’s plan. Yet the history of sin can only be understood in the light of God’s love and forgiveness. Were sin the only thing that mattered, we would be the most desperate of creatures. But the promised triumph of Christ’s love enfolds everything in the Father’s mercy. The word of God which we have just heard leaves no doubt about this. The Immaculate Virgin stands before us as a privileged witness of this promise and its fulfilment.
This Extraordinary Holy Year is itself a gift of grace. To pass through the Holy Door means to rediscover the infinite mercy of the Father who welcomes everyone and goes out personally to encounter each of them. This will be a year in which we grow ever more convinced of God’s mercy. How much wrong we do to God and his grace when we speak of sins being punished by his judgment before we speak of their being forgiven by his mercy (cf. Saint Augustine, De Praedestinatione Sanctorum, 12, 24)! But that is the truth. We have to put mercy before judgment, and in any event God’s judgement will always be in the light of his mercy. In passing through the Holy Door, then, may we feel that we ourselves are part of this mystery of love. Let us set aside all fear and dread, for these do not befit men and women who are loved. Instead, let us experience the joy of encountering that grace which transforms all things.
Today, as we pass through the Holy Door, we also want to remember another door, which fifty years ago the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council opened to the world. This anniversary cannot be remembered only for the legacy of the Council’s documents, which testify to a great advance in faith. Before all else, the Council was an encounter. A genuine encounter between the Church and the men and women of our time. An encounter marked by the power of the Spirit, who impelled the Church to emerge from the shoals which for years had kept her self-enclosed so as to set out once again, with enthusiasm, on her missionary journey. It was the resumption of a journey of encountering people where they live: in their cities and homes, in their workplaces. Wherever there are people, the Church is called to reach out to them and to bring the joy of the Gospel. After these decades, we again take up this missionary drive with the same power and enthusiasm. The Jubilee challenges us to this openness, and demands that we not neglect the spirit which emerged from Vatican II, the spirit of the Samaritan, as Blessed Paul VI expressed it at the conclusion of the Council. May our passing through the Holy Door today commit us to making our own the mercy of the Good Samaritan.
HM Television and Apostolic Penitentiary: program on Confession for Jubilee Year of Mercy.
HM Television, in collaboration with the Apostolic Penitentiary, present “The Ends of the Earth Have Seen His Mercy,” a documentary on the Sacrament of Penance, on the occasion of the Jubilee Year of Mercy.
Major Penitentiary of the Apostolic Penitentiary, Cardinal Mauro Piacenza; Regent of the Apostolic Penitentiary, Archbishop Krzysztof Nykiel; Secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, Archbishop Arthur Roche; the penitentiaries of the four major basilicas of Rome and other experts on the subject help us to enter more deeply into the unfathomable mystery of God’s mercy.
The program opens with a glimpse into the Old Testament to discover “a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger and rich in kindness and fidelity, continuing his kindness for a thousand generations, and forgiving wickedness and crime and sin” (Ex 34:6-7).
What follows is a presentation of Jesus Christ as the Revelation and Incarnation of the Father: “We see the closeness of God our Heavenly Father to us through the Incarnation, through His Son becoming flesh like us, living amongst us” (Archbishop Arthur Roche).
The central part of the program is dedicated to a reflection on the Sacrament of Penance, the instrument God uses to administer His mercy in the forgiveness of sins. The program offers a commentary on the basic requirements for making a good confession as well as an explanation of the needs and effects of reconciliation with God: “When a confession is made with faith, everything falls back into place, because the Lord is always ready to receive us, like the father from the parable of the Prodigal Son. With arms wide open, He awaits us in the confessional. All we have to do is be sincere and have contrition in our hearts” (Cardinal Mauro Piacenza).
The program concludes with a brief reflection on how priests should dedicate themselves to this ministry and a look at the indulgences the Church grants penitents.
The program includes interviews with:
-Cardinal Mauro Piacenza, Major Penitentiary of the Apostolic Penitentiary
-Archbishop Arthur Roche, Secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments
-Archbishop Krzysztof Nykiel, Regent of the Apostolic Penitentiary
-Fr. Fr. Ján Ďačok, SI, Theologian of the Apostolic Penitentiary
-Fr. Pedro Fernández, OP, Penitentiary of the Basilica of St. Mary Major
-Fr. Ciro Stanzione, OFM, Penitentiary of the Basilica of St. John Lateran
-Fr. Kevin Hanley, OFM, Penitentiary of the Basilica of St. Peter (Vatican)
-Fr. Roberto Dotta, OSB, Penitentiary of the Basilica of St. Paul Outside-the-Walls
"The Ends of the Earth Have Seen His Mercy” has a running time of approximately 30 minutes and is available in Spanish, English, and Italian.
