A Miracle Of The Jubilee Year Of Mercy

A true miracle of The Jubilee Year of Mercy. We have been trying to complete the construction and furbishment of the primary school in my mission in Kiabakari for the past ten years. And it looks like the Merciful Father heard our pleas and in the tenth year of the struggle we may be able finally, God willing, to complete the task. 

To the contrary - the eye/dental clinic project came up as an instant idea late last year during the voluntary service of Klinika Okulus and Fundacja Dzieci Afryki eye specialists in our health center in Kiabakari. This time we did not have to wait many years for the idea to become reality - the project submitted by Fundacja Kiabakari with cooperation with Iwona Filipecka and her Klinika Okulus team - along with the school one has passed the scrutiny.

I am very grateful to Merciful Father for these Jubilee gifts. This is a genuine act of Divine Mercy 'in action' impacting powerfully the education and healthcare areas of our committment in Kiabakari. 

I am very grateful to Fundacja Kiabakari with its CEO Bożena Koczur and our partners who worked professionally and in a very short timeframe to prepare these projects. 

I am very grateful to Polish Ministry for Foreign Affairs for their trust in our professionalism, transparency and dedication for those in need in this part of the world. I thank them personally for their continuous support of the worthy cause which is Kiabakari and its educational and healthcare institutions. 

Out of six projects approved for Tanzania for this year, two will be implemented in Kiabakari. 

And altogether, if I am not mistaken, there will be now around ten development and voluntary projects supported so far by the Polish Ministry for Foreign Affairs in Kiabakari. 

This is an absolutely invaluable help without which we would not even dream to help the local communities on such a high quality and effective level. 

Thank you - on behalf of all in Kiabakari and the area who are recipients of the Polish Aid!

https://www.polskapomoc.gov.pl/Wyniki,konkursu,Polska,pomoc,rozwojowa,2016,2460.html

‪#‎MSZ‬ ‪#‎PolskaPomoc2016‬ ‪#‎FundacjaKiabakari‬ ‪#‎DivineMercyInAction‬‪#‎JubileeYearofMercy‬ ‪#‎gratitude‬ ‪#‎developmentprojects‬ ‪#‎primaryschool‬‪#‎eyedentalclinic‬ ‪#‎KlinikaOkulus‬ ‪#‎FundacjaDzieciAfryki‬

The Door Of Mercy In Kiabakari Registered on Vatican Official Website Of The Year Of Mercy

Happy day today as our Door of Mercy in Kiabakari Shrine has been officially registered in The Jubilee of Mercy official website. And it is the very first Door of Mercy registered from the entire Tanzania. We feel very proud!

Here is the link to the description of our Shrine (click here).

Link to the Doors of Mercy worldwide (click here)

Gaudete!

Today is the Third Sunday of Advent. This Sunday is called also "Gaudete" Sunday due to the joyful message proclaimed by the Mass formula and the Liturgy of the Word.

We have several reasons today for a very joyful celebration. The Holy Father has opened the Door of Mercy at St. Peter's Basilica on Tuesday. On Wednesday our Bishop of Musoma did the same in Holy Mary, Mother of God Cathedral in Musoma. Us did the same on Friday. Today another Doors of Mercy will be opened my the Holy Father in Rome's Papal Basilicas, in particular at his own cathedral at St. John  in Lateran.

In all dioceses of the world and indeed in every parish in the world the Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy will be inaugurated and Doors of Mercy will be opened all over the world.

I have yet another - personal - reason to celebrate in gladness, gratitude and joy. This morning I have received the shipment of my new books and publications which I prepared for this Year of Mercy. A new book on Divine Mercy, a guidebook for readers of the Word of God, the examination of conscience for adults, the examination of conscience for the youth, the Jubilee prayer and the checklist of corporal and spiritual deeds of mercy during the Jubilee Year.

Immediately after we finished offloading the truck and stored books securely - the heavy downpour came all of a sudden and it still rains as I write these words three hours later. We were lucky, otherwise the shipment would get soaked in rain.

Misericordias Domini in aeternum cantabo! Thanks be to Merciful Father for the safe transportation of the shipment. Thanks be to Merciful Father for these first couple days of the Year of Mercy and extraordinary blessings and graces we have already received.

How Can I ?

There so much to be grateful for to Merciful God, His Angels and Saints and to His people in the first half of this year which ends today. I feel overwhelmed with gratitude to God's Mercy and to love and care of so many great people I have been blessed to meet and interact with in the past six months. Thank you!

"How can I repay the LORD for all the great good done for me? I will raise the cup of salvation and call on the name of the LORD". (Ps 116:12-13)

27th Anniversary Of My Ordination To Priesthood

On the day like today, 27 years ago, His Eminence Franciszek Cardinal Macharski, ordained sixty six new priests for the Archdiocese of Kraków, Poland. One of them was me. Please, join me in a celebration of this special anniversary to our ordination class of 1988. The recollection day, the Holy Mass, silent adoration of the Eucharist. A day of gratitude and penitence. A day of joy and meditation. A day of opening up anew to the Holy Spirit and inviting Him anew in my life. A day of reflecting upon the motto of my ordination card (souvenir) -

"The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn." (Is 61:1-2)

Please, visit the the following links to read more about that day, to see the pictures and sing with us the song we sung in the ordination Mass on May 22, 1988 in Wawel cathedral, Kraków, Poland.

http://kiabakarisnippets.blogspot.com/2010/05/catch-22.html
http://kiabakarisnippets.blogspot.com/2010/05/what-wonderful-day-today.html

Please, pray for us to the Holy Spirit!

New Arrivals To Our Health Center In Kiabakari

Thank you Mons. Jan for your kind donation to our health center in Kiabakari which allowed us to purchase a line of much needed lab equipment for - among others - the antibiogram tests. On behalf of the benefactor this morning I have handed the gifts over to the manager of the health center and the lab technician. The gift consists of micropipette, digital colorimeter, digital thermal incubator, autoclav, water bath machine, digital scale for reagents and tissues, plus other small items. The list of lab services on offer in our health facility has gained yet another valuable item.

Winter Pilgrimage To Mariazell Shrine In Austria - Photos

Continuing with my recovery program after the surgery on January 13 this year, I am deeply grateful to my classmate and best friend - Fr. Wiesław, pastor of Ulmerfeld-Hausmenning-Neufurth parish in St. Pölten diocese in Austria, for his invitation to come for one week to his place to rest and visit our common friends, especially from the Mission Team. Yesterday I had opportunity to see Linz and the area with our dear friends - Maria, Herbert, Maria and Brigitte. Today another dear friend - Franz - took me to Mariazell for prayer and Holy Mass. I am so happy and grateful to him personally, to his wife Brigitte for a lovely welcome at their house, for breakfast and lunch and good chat, same as I was grateful to Fantastic Four yesterday on the way from Linz and in Maria's house. Here are some images I took on my mobile on the way, in and back from Mariazell. Austria is magnificent in winter! It is such a blessed time here in Ulmerfeld. Deo gratias! Thank you, Wiesiek! Thank you, Mission Team! God bless you much!

Kiabakari Dziękuje Wam!

Thank You!

Sincere and heartfelt words of thanks to all of you, my friends, who kept me in you prayers while undergoing the surgery. I am back home, looks like the procedure went well and though weak and dizzy yet I look forward to the time of recovery that lies ahead now. Thank you and God bless you all!

Back On The Med Trail

The day after the arrival back to Kraków I am again since this morning on the medical trail of doctors and preparations for what is coming up next Monday and Tuesday when I will be admitted to the hospital for the planned surgery which supposedly will ease up my persisting breathing problems, especially when sleeping.

Frankly, I am looking forward to this new challenge and experience in my life. And I am very grateful to the leading surgeon on the surgical team for finding a spot for this procedure when I met him in early August last year at the end of my medical checkup process in May to July when the source of the problem was discovered. I feel somehow relieved that he and other specialists found out the root of the problem that bothered me for long time now and came up with the solutions and the date for the procedure under national insurance policy which will help me avoid the significant costs of this surgery. I wish to thank also my family doctor who helped me last year with all the necessary procedures and checkups and directed me for the surgery.

I am very grateful to my friend and brother-in-arms, Rev. Fr. Stanisław Puzyniak, the parish priest of my home parish in Nowa Huta - The Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish in Osiedle Teatralne, covering the area of Osiedle Górali where I was born and lived till Form IV before moving to our own apartment in December 1981 in St. Kazimierz Parish in Kraków's Grzegórzki. Himself touched by pain and suffering in his own life, he did not hesitate to cover the expenses of the airfare to get me here and return back to Tanzania after the procedure and six weeks required recovery time as told by the surgeon. Thank you very much, Stasiu!

A very special word of thanks to the CEO with the family of my friends of Foundation Kiabakari, to all my friends who are with me in this point of time of life - for their closeness, support, help, words of encouragement and prayers. Thank you so much!

Prayers very much appreciated for the successful procedure next Tuesday. Thank you and God bless us all!

Yes, We Could And We Did!

What has happened in the past four months (September-December 2014) since I came back from my extended holidays-medical checkup, borders on a genuine miracle category. Yes, putting aside apparent God's Providence and blessings, it is an outcome of joined efforts of so many friends of Kiabakari and of our development push for the betterment of the education of our little ones in Kiabakari.

Firstly - all those who presented me with various gifts during my silver jubilee of priesthood celebrations in 2013 - both in Europe and in Tanzania. These gifts helped me to buy three plots and offer compensation for three families adjacent to our primary school for the purpose of the construction of the new wing. The cost of this exercise was 6,000 Euros.

Secondly - my relatives and personal friends in Poland, Austria and Ireland, parochial communities where I was invited for mission awareness Sundays and fundraisers (Chochołów, Puławy, Krowodrza, Św. Szczepan, Św. Kazimierz, Św. Karol Boromeusz, NSPJ os. Teatralne in Nowa Huta, Siepraw, Ogrodzieniec, Św. Jan Kanty - os. Widok, Biały Prądnik), bank donations from many known and unknown to me persons, Foundation Kiabakari online fundraisers for the construction of the new wing and for the textbooks for standard five students, Makulatura na Misje team at St. Kazimierz home parish in Krakow and the last but not least corporate donor - Murapol S.A. from Bielsko-Biała, Poland, school construction fund of parents of our students in Kiabakari (they donated altogether 200$) - we were able to reach the goal for the end of 2014 - the construction of the new wing for standard 5,6,7 classrooms and computer lab, the finishing and furnishing of standard 5 and six classrooms (the standard six finishing is underway at the moment) and the textbooks for standard 5 students. The total value of the entire project so far exceeds 75,000$.

Yes, we could and we did!

I am so proud and grateful to all of you who helped us in small and big ways. Here are some images of this story:

New Year 2015

The last day of the 'old year', December 31, has been always to me a special and opportune time to recapitulate the proceedings of the past twelve months in the eyes of faith and in a quadruple ambiance of prevailing feelings of:

1. Adoration and praise of God,
2. Gratitude to God and people I was blessed to meet, work and interact with,
3. Repentance for what was lacking in me and my service and asking for pardon from God and people I offended, even if not purposefully,
4. Hope and consecration to God's Mercy and Providence for the year to come.

It is no different today. This is exactly how I feel, meditate upon, think about, recollect and pray.

I will not dare to attempt to commit to this post what has happened in the past twelve months of this year. Instead, I will celebrate a special Thanksgiving Mass this evening immersing in Divine Mercy Ocean this year, all people I met, everything that has happened, all that we and I were able to achieve, everyone and everything, with all my hopes, dreams, passions, plans for the next year.

Thank you, Lord! Thank you, all my loved ones, friends, benefactors, readers of my blog and all I met this year! At the same time I ask God and all of you for pardon and absolution for my mistakes, failures and shortcomings.

I wish us all a wonderful New 2015 Year full of God's Love, Light, Power, Joy and Peace. A year full of personal accomplishments and genuine satisfaction.

"Ntampata Wapi?" The Tribute to All People of the Foundation Kiabakari

This song I wish to dedicate with all my gratitude and respect to the Chairperson of Foundation Kiabakari, the board and the council and all esteemed volunteers of the Foundation, private volunteers and of other organizations who came or are committed to the cause of Kiabakari and gave our people the greatest gift ever - their selves, their talents, time, love, care, kindness, passions, creativity and devotions...

Five Minutes To Midnight - Wrapping Up 2014

I have just realized that I haven't posted anything in the whole month of November. Shame on me! Yet, considering the November pastoral and development works package plus the annual holidays of the manager of the health center and my personal secretary at the same time leaving me with all things on my poor head, no wonder that I was a bit too preoccupied to continue posting here. My apologies anyway.

We have just started December and the new liturgical year. The Advent has begun. The time, I would say - five minutes to midnight in the scale of the year.

This is the time for closing meetings of the year, reports, summaries, retrospections and so forth. I have drawn my short list of highlights of 2014 in my life and in Kiabakari. Here it is:

January - first pastoral meetings in the parish, the Holy Childhood annual feast on the Epiphany,

February - 8 days long Faith Renewal parochial retreat (The Year of the Family theme), Baptisms and First Communions in the parochial church and outstations, the end of the registration process of our pre- and primary schools (yes! after a full year of painstaking process!), Furu fanatics team hosting in Kiabakari,

March - Lent spiritual and pastoral activities,

April - Holy Week, Easter, Divine Mercy Novena and Divine Mercy Sunday three days of celebrations, major overhaul of Grandma (my 21 year old truck),

May-July - three month short sabbatical - medical checkups and procedures, pilgrimages to my favorites shrine and Saints in Poland, Italy and Ireland; visiting friends and places in Poland, Austria, Hungary, Ireland and Germany; private fundraisers in parishes and among friends for the construction of the new wing in the primary school in Kiabakari,

August - Third World Apostolic Congress on Mercy in Colombia, Bogota (paricipating as the national coordinator of the Congress in Tanzania) and the proposal of organizing a continental congress on Mercy in Africa and Madagascar in September/October 2016,

September - The Year of Family pastoral program with catechesis on Sundays, Confirmation catechesis on Saturdays, the pastoral visit of the Apostolic Nuncio in Tanzania in the Diocesan Shrine of Divine Mercy in Kiabakari with the blessing of the construction site of the new wing in our school, the beginning of the construction of the wing,

October - The Year of Family pastoral program with catechesis on Sundays, Confirmation catechesis, the construction of the new wing, Holy Rosary daily prayer service in the presence of the Most Holy Eucharist,

November - The Year of Family pastoral program with catechesis on Sundays, the daily liturgical services with prayer for the deceased, Confirmation catechesis, exams, the construction of the new wing, Confirmation Mass for 128 candidates from all outstations of the parish (9/11/2014), the national exams for Standard 4 students in our primary school (26-27/11/2014),

December - The Fifth Graduation in our pre-school (3/12/2014), the official inauguration of the children choir in the parish (14/12/2014), the completion of the construction of the new wing and the finishing of the standard 5 classroom, Advent pastoral program, Christmas, the finale of the Year of the Family (27-28 December) with our bishop presiding.

There is a lot to be grateful to Almighty and Merciful God in this year. And I invite you all, my dear friends, to join me in this thanksgiving prayer. 

There is a lot to be sorry for as well. And I invite you again, my friends, to join me in our prayer of contraction and asking for pardon for our failures and shortcomings. 

There is a lot to be hopeful for in this new liturgical year. And once again I ask you all, my friends, to raise our hearts and voices to our God praying for our dreams, passions, resolutions, desires, plans and goals - may good Lord grants us all that is pleasing to Him and salvific to us.

In Te, Domine, speravi! Non confundar in aeternum!

Happy new Liturgical Year to us all!

Quiet Reflections Over Sunday Morning Coffee

Waking up to the last day in the homeland before starting my long journey back to Kiabakari which will lead me initially to South America for the third World Apostolic Congress on Mercy. I will attend the Congress in the capacity of the national coordinator of Divine Mercy in Tanzania. I feel deeply honored and privileged as this will be my third time to participate in such a global event (the first was the Congress in Lateran Basilica in Rome, the second in the Divine Mercy Shrine in Kraków-Łagiewniki). 

But - first things first. 

Today is the last full day in Poland. The Mission Awareness Sunday in one of the Kraków's parishes. As I pray silently to gather my inner strength and resolve targeting them towards today's goals, the morning coffee brews across the room. In a few minutes I will be ready to cross the city from Grzegórzki to Biały Prądnik to begin my service to the Word of God. 

The so familiar scent of a freshly brewed coffee reminds me so many meeting and quiet chats over a cup of coffee with so many good friends throughout the past three months in Europe. So much to be grateful for to God and to His people. So many recollections, so many good experiences, so many challenges faced off boldly, so many things that happened shaping in a way the months to come.

I ask humbly for your kind prayers that the Word of God I will sow today with the power of the Holy Spirit yields abundant fruit in the Holy Church. I wish you all a blessed Lord's Day! 

Time to go.

It's Been Too Long

Yes, it has been so long since I last made my personal pilgrimage to the Shrine of Our Lady of Rosary in Fatima. The first time I went alone in 1997 to thank Our Lady personally for the dedication of the parochial church in Kiabakari.

The second time I went to Fatima with my fellow missionary and friend, Fr. Piotr Pawlus, in 2001, to thank for the Year of the Great Jubilee and all graces we received during that holy time; and prepare spiritually before the elevation of the parochial church of Kiabakari to become the diocesan shrine of Divine Mercy.

It has been thirteen years now since that time. Way too long.

Tomorrow I will set off from Kraków to Fatima for my third personal pilgrimage to Our Lady of Fatima. So many reasons to be grateful for and praise the Lord with Our Lady. So many reasons to be grateful to Our Lady - for her incessant protection and intercession especially in difficult times and situations. So many reasons to be sorry, personally and as a parochial community. So many things to ask for Our Lady, Merciful Mother of Jesus - my own intentions, worries, problems, challenges, dreams and passions, in particular the fulfillment of the vision of Divine Mercy in Kiabakari; but also so many intentions of so many people asking for prayers and intercessions.

Fatima is my favorite Marian shrine. It draws my heart and mind with powerful mystical force. I feel at home there, yet extremely shy and respectful.

Cova da Iria - the place in Fatima
where the Apparitions of Our Lady occurred in 1917

The Chapel of Apparitions

The Chapel of Apparitions from outside

Jacinta, Lucia and Francisco - the Seers of Fatima

I am very happy to be given this opportunity to visit Our Lady of Fatima for the third time. I am very happy also and grateful to the Rectorate of the Shrine for allowing me to celebrate a private Mass in the Chapel of Apparitions on Wednesday morning at 6.00 A.M. before the official program of the day starts. I will celebrate the Holy Mass not only in my intentions but also in all intentions dear to the hearts of all my readers, relatives and friends.

I hope you will be able to participate in this celebration on Wednesday morning at 6.00 A.M. thanks to the internet camera live feed straight from the Chapel of Apparitions (not sure if the feed will be live at that early time of the day, though):

It will be very short pilgrimage, just one full day in Fatima, but it will be the day filled with prayer, medication and total homage and submission to Our Lady. Let Her Son's Will be done through her maternal intercession.

Africa

Just recently I met in Kraków with dr Jadzia Żyłka, the doctor in charge of Kiabakari health center in 2008-2010. She had a surprise gift for me - a new album of Leszek Możdżer - 'Polska' - an autographed copy! What a gem. Thank you, Jadzia, for your consideration and for taking pains to get this copy to artists. I appreciate it very very much.

Here is the proof:

And the circled track in the album - 'Africa' - is this one. Enjoy!

Mission Awareness Sunday in Chochołów

It was a great Sunday in Chochołów parish. Wonderful location, beautiful church painstakingly being restored by my classmate and parish priest of Chochołów, Fr. Stanisław Syc. Three Holy Masses and three homilies, wonderful hospitality of highlanders. Could not ask for more blessings! Special thanks to Tomek Woźniak, who drove me there and picked me up again yesterday evening to drive me back to Kraków.

Priority 2014

Arrived to home town of Kraków last Thursday night for the long awaited vacation intertwined with the quest of securing some help for the completion of our primary school in Kiabakari, medical checkups, visitations of people and places dear to my heart and so forth.

I am very grateful to my colleagues who invited me for mission awareness Sunday, with preaching and fundraisings for the cause. I am grateful also to Miss Agata Krupa, volunteer of Foundation Kiabakari for the design of the info leaflet I will be distributing in the parishes and places wherever I will happen to be. Gratitude to Fr. Roman Zapała who volunteered to cover the expenses of the printing of the publication and to Wydawnictwo Platan in Kryspinów, near Kraków, for offering to print it immediately and for the costs of the materials used only. Thank you so much, you people of immense heart for the mission's cause in Kiabakari. God bless you much! I do hope this little publication will help people I will meet in my quest to know better Kiabakari, Foundation Kiabakari, what we do, what is needed there and so forth.

Here it is - the little leaflet, my little companion on the road from May to August. May God grant special convincing powers to all readers of this publication to move their hearts to join our cause and help to push it forward. It is in Polish language, understandably, and here it is shown front and back on one page for better viewing.

Looking Forward To WACOM 2014

A very good morning indeed. I have just succeeded to register myself online for WACOM 2014 (World Apostolic Congress On Mercy) which will take place in Bogota, Colombia in August this year (check the news on Facebook and YouTube). I was blessed to attend the previous two Congresses - in Lateran Basilica in Rome and in Łagiewniki-Kraków. And I am very happy and grateful to Merciful Lord and people of good will who enabled me to get ready for the third Congress. I will participate in this important event as the national coordinator of WACOM in Tanzania.

I am deeply grateful to my friends who found a good connection and airfare at Swiss and those who helped me with partial payment for my air ticket to Europe and then to Colombia. I am deeply grateful to His Excellency Bishop Michael Msonganzila who supported the journey with remaining two thirds of the airfare and gave his blessing for the endeavor.

I am deeply grateful to Almighty and Merciful Lord for the chance to give testimony to the world about the Divine Mercy devotion and spirituality in this part of the universe. I am looking forward to reconnect with Divine Mercy Apostles from various countries whom I met in the previous two Congresses.

I commend the spiritual preparations for the Congress and the Congress itself to your kind and generous prayers, my dear readers. May Lord's Will be done in all of us and in everything we undertake in His name. God bless us all in this holy time of Lent!

Official website of WACOM Colombia - registration online

Successful registration