Mesmerizing Beauty

Today I took a minibus from Kraków's Bus Terminal and traveled 90 minutes to Jawiszowice (12 kilometers from Oświęcim / Auschwitz and 10 km from Bielsko-Biała outskirts), to St. Martin parish, where my lifelong friend, Fr. Henryk Zątek, has been a parish priest and custodian of the centuries old wooden church for the past fifteen or so years.

What he accomplished, helped by art conservation specialists from Kraków in this relatively short span of time is beyond my comprehension (please, read the history of the parish and the church here. This surely must be one of the most beautiful and most professionally restored, preserved and protected piece of sacred architecture in Poland if not in the world. To me, this is my favorite wooden church ever.

I took a few photos on my iPhone (posted below), but I would suggest that the best way to appreciate the beauty of the church and the love of Fr. Henryk to his church and his never-ending effort to preserve it as best as possible for this and future generations - is to see it with one's own eyes. If not possible, please make a virtual walk in and around the church by clicking here.

Into The Sacred Reality

Tomorrow is the day I will go on my personal pilgrimage to St. Wojciech (Adalbert) parish in Mucharz (my Patron Saint). This is the centuries old parish, one of the first in this area, with amazing history. Here it is believed my Patron Saint stayed and preached Good News on two separate occasions in tenth century. It would not be possible to omit this sacred place in my road map of shrines and holy places important to my faith and spirituality which I need to visit and pray there in my time of holidays in Europe this year.

From this parish Wadowice parish was born (the home parish of Saint John Paul II). Mucharz was the very first parish visited pastorally by Karol Wojtyła right after he became the bishop of Kraków. This is the parish and the sacred place which - according to words of Saint John Paul II spoken in 1994 in Vatican during the celebrations of 16th anniversary of his pontificate - had great influence on his faith and his life. 

Time to immerse myself in the sacredness of this holy place and its venerable history full of the presence of the Holy Spirit and of my Patron Saint. The added value of this spiritual journey is the fact that the parish priest of the parish is my classmate from our ordination class, Rev. Fr. Krzysztof Strzelichowski, one of my closest friends in our class. So good to reunite with him again, to celebrate Holy Mass together and have a nice late evening chat over a piece of world renowned cottage bread, a glass of fine wine and our favorite cheese.

I Met An Angel

If there is one single God's creature that made my work of sowing a Word of God about Divine Mercy in Kiabakari in the hearts and souls of wonderful people of Puławy in Archdiocese of Lublin in Eastern Poland on last Sunday much easier and pleasant - it must have been the Angel of God in human form - Reverend Sister Irmina Syroka, the organist, cantor and choir master of Divine Mercy Parish in Puławy.

Sister Irmina in my humble opinion has the most sacred voice I have ever heard in my life. As if the Angel from heaven sang using her charisms and talents. I would easily placed her in the top spot in my personal ranking of all cantors and organ players in the whole world.

Bad enough, when I asked her about her recordings, Cds, DVDs - there were none. Such a humble and simple person full of Holy Spirit. I searched the internet and came up with few pictures and few YouTube videos with horrible quality which does not do justice to the purity and magnificence of Sister's voice.

Nevertheless, meet the Angel of God in the form of Sister Irmina Syroka of Benedictine Sisters congregation from Puławy Divine Mercy Parish.

If you happen to pass Puławy, make sure you participate in the Mass in that beautiful church.

Thank you, Holy Spirit, for your generous outpouring of Your special charisms in gifts in Christ's Church. Thank you for Sister Irmina and her humble apostolate of praising the Lord with her voice and organ playing.

I envy with holy envy parishioners of that parish who have such a gem on daily basis. What a different quality experience of Sacred Liturgy it is led by such a grand person.

Sister Irmina in the middle sitting

Sister Irmina sitting in the middle

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.

Twenty Years Of Butiama Parish

Yesterday, our neighbors in Butiama, celebrated their twentieth anniversary of the birth of their parish. Fr. Maciej Braun, CR - the parish priest of Butiama - asked me to take a few pictures of the event. You can see them here.

Retreat - Sunday - First Day Texts

As promised, but a bit earlier as I've got a couple of hours of break midday, I would like to share with you the texts from today's homilies on the first day of our parochial retreat, so all of you far away from Kraków may join us and follow the path we have just taken. These are two homilies - one general and one for children's Mass (today we celebrated the first anniversary of the First Communion of children who received the First Communion in May last year). I post original texts in Polish, so please, use the Google translator to choose your language. Continue praying for us. Thank you.

Retreat Texts

In an hour our week-long parochial retreat will begin. I would like to announce that every day in the late evening around 10 P.M. (Eastern European Time - GMT+2) I will be posting daily texts of homilies and spiritual talks that I preached on that given day. Thus enabling all of you to participate in the retreat with us present in the parochial church of St. Kazimierz on Kraków's Grzegórzki district. Let us pray for each other during this time of special grace. As always, use Google Translator provided in the right sidebar to translate texts in your own language, please. God bless us all!

The Journey Within

Rainer Maria Rilke said once - "The only journey is the journey within." And this is precisely what we are about to do starting tomorrow when I begin a week-long parochial retreat as a preparation of the community of the faithful for the upcoming visitation of the sacred image of Divine Mercy in our parish. For the whole week I will try to guide the parochial community in prayer, meditations, spiritual talks and reflections along the main theme of the spiritual journey within ourselves for the sake of the renewal of our parish and our bonds as the family of God. The program of the retreat is here. I ask all of you humbly for your kind prayers and support so that the Almighty and Merciful God may use me as He pleases for the sake of His children in our parish. May the Holy Spirit guide and enlighten us along the spiritual path within and may God's will be done to the fullest. I promise you my sincere prayers for you and for all your needs. God bless us all!

Upper Room

I am sitting in the upper room of the rectory of Ulmerfeld parish in diocese of St. Polten in Austria, in my best friend parish, focusing on the notes for the upcoming parochial week-long retreat in St. Kazimierz parish in Kraków, my home parish, as a preparation for the visitation of the picture of Jesus, the King of Mercy (4-5 June). The retreat will begin this Sunday and I am deeply grateful to Fr. Wiesiek for the opportunity of three calm days in his parish to work on final shapes of the spiritual talks. Please, pray for the parochial community at St. Kazimierz and myself - may the Holy Spirit guide and enlighten us. May the Holy Spirit enable me to speak only what God wants and may these words penetrate the deepest cores of the faithful hearts and consciences. As always, I will pray in a special way for all of you, my esteemed readers. God bless and protect and guide us all!

Silver Jubilee - Photos

Silver Jubilee Homily

I have been asked by many people who attended the Jubilee Mass for copies of my homily. I guess the best way to share it with them and with you is to publish the text here. It is in Polish, so please, use Google translator or other software to get it in your own language.

So, here it goes. And remember, please, to pray for me and Kiabakari. God bless you all!

Sub Tuum Praesidium

On January 1 each year the Holy Church celebrates the Solemnity of Holy Mary, Mother of God. In the Universal Church this is a day of Prayer for Peace led by the Holy Father himself. In our Diocese of Musoma this is a day of the feast day of the Patroness of the Musoma Cathedral and the Diocese of Musoma. The Solemnity of Theotokos. The Solemnity of the Patroness of the Kiabakari parish as well, as on the day of the dedication of the parochial church on July 3, 1997, the Archbishop of Mwanza consecrated the parish and the families in the parish to Our Lady...

Weekend? You bet!

Whenever I come across people excited by TGIF (Thanks God It's Friday) frenzy, I question myself if I am abnormal. To me, Friday is the beginning of the busiest time of the week. This 'weekend' is no exception to this rule...

A Quiet Day?

Yeah, it was supposed to be a quiet day. An office routine day. As I am recovering from amoeba and fluctuating blood pressure, I wanted today just to stay home and be available to people coming to the office. And sure, they did come!

It Was A Wonderful Sunday

It was a wonderful Sunday yesterday. Reconnecting with my very first parish after my priestly ordination where I spent one and a half years 1988-1990. Great community, great memories, great reunions. It makes such a huge difference when the parish priest is a former missionary in Africa himself. He understands the situation of diocesan priests in the missions. He went through the same experience. He did the same rough road, left alone in the battle for too many times. I am happy that I met Fr. Edward there. He is such a fine man, gentle, understanding and caring in his unique subtle ways. Another factor - my friends in Sułkowice, in particular the family of Wojtek Bargieł. They have been such a great help to me for a few years now. I cannot thank them enough. With people like them, the life of a missionary has its sunny side. Thank you, Lord!

Week Long Snippets

It was a pretty busy week. I am glad I end it on a positive and high spirits note. Returning on Monday from Janów Lubelski, driving my Dad's old car in rain was not a good experience. It left me stressed as the traffic was heavy and many people drive their cars as if in Playstation game. Rested a bit in the afternoon, talked briefly with my Foundation's members. On Tuesday I traveled by train to Warsaw. It was meant to be three days trip, but luckily, I was able to finish the whole to-do list in 24 hours, so I was able to travel back to Kraków on Wednesday afternoon. The train was late one hours, and I felt down a bit, as the exhaustion and weariness kicked in. Nevertheless, next day, on Thursday I felt recharged and able to continue with the agenda. Yesterday was a preparation day for today's trip to Mucharz parish, where this evening I will start my mission awareness weekend in the parish, where my classmate is a parish priest. He invited me for the Patron Saint parochial feast - St. Wojciech, bishop, missionary and martyr. It is my Patron Saint as well, and I feel honored to be invited as the main celebrant and preacher for the occasion. It coincides also with my birthday tomorrow, April 22. It is the last birthday in the range of 40+ as tomorrow I will turn 49 and will start my fiftieth year of my life and the 25th year of my priesthood. I am genuinely surprised that years passed by so quickly! When I was a teenager and a seminarian, looking at guys in their fifties I was thinking - gosh, they are soooooo old! And, tara! I am right here. The only difference is that I feel great, consider my forties the best period of my life and look ahead for so more years to come in my active service of God, the Church and the society. Still, I ask humbly for your kind prayers for me and for all those I serve and for my parents, relatives, formators, teachers and all people God placed on my path who made an impact on my life and the way I am now. I am  deeply grateful to all of them and while celebrating in prayerful and reflective mode my birthday and Patron Saint feast day, I immerse all of them in the Ocean of Divine Mercy. Thank you!

Gratitude

Back home with my Dad. So overwhelmed and grateful to Fr. Antoni, the parish priest and the whole fantastic parochial community in Rokiciny Podhalańskie for the Holy Triduum I was blessed to participate together with them. Arguably the best Easter ever since many many years... I had ample time for my private prayer, meditation, thinking, adoration, planning... I feel at peace now with my inner spiritual batteries fully charged. Thank you, Lord!

To The Mountains

Time to pack again and leave to the Tatra mountains, to the small rural parish where I will help pastorally during the Holy Triduum. I am very happy to be able to reconnect again with a friend of mine, the parish priest of that parish, who happened to work in my home parish years ago, when I was still a seminarian. Being able to visit him again and serve the local parochial community in this holy time is a really exciting prospect which I am looking forward to very much. As the parish is small in terms of statistics, but big in spirit and faith, I will immerse myself in this divine and human realm and draw from the fonts of loving waters in the liturgy and my private adoration, meditation and prayer. As always, I will take you all with me in my heart, continuing my prayer for all of you and all intentions dear to your hearts. God bless us all in this wonderful Holy time of Lord's Passion, Death and Resurrection.

One Horse Cart

All four parishes (missions) in our Butiama deanery a manned by single priests. Four parishes. Four priests. One horse carts...Yesterday we had a meeting of the executive council of Kiabakari parish. One of the chairpersons of outstations asked a question when we finished agenda and arrived to AOB (any other business). He wanted to know why I did not ask bishop for an assistant priest, so it could be easier for me to perform my duties and find time for rest and ensure the continuity of pastoral services while I am away on my 'scouting trips' looking for support and funding...

Sub Tuum Praesidium!

These are the words I spoke while kneeling yesterday in front of the main altar of Divine Mercy Shrine in Kiabakari. When I was getting ready for the New Year Masses in my mission, on the first day of the New Year 2012, on the Solemnity of Holy Mary, Mother of God, I felt a very strong urge to consecrate my mission anew to Our Lady...