The Power At Work Within Us

At the threshold of the new liturgical year, I recall the words of Saint Paul the Apostle of Nations, which I chose as the preamble of my testament and I used them as the second reading for my silver jubilee celebration in Kiabakari last week on November 21.

"I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that he may grant you in accord with the riches of his glory to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner self and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the holy ones what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Now to him who is able to accomplish far more than all we ask or imagine, by the power at work within us, to him be glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen." (Eph 3:14-21)

When I went for my one day retreat at Bunda Carmel one week before the silver jubilee celebrations, I got the powerful message on that day reminding me about the unique role of the Holy Spirit in my life and priestly / missionary vocation. All three reading chosen for the jubilee Mass spoke about the work of the Holy Spirit in my life. And yet I was somehow oblivious of this obvious truth in my past years. The Holy Spirit came back on that day in Bunda and rightfully enlightened my mind and soul to take back His crucial and primary position in my life.

As I celebrated the first Holy Mass of the new liturgical year this morning, I surrendered myself to the Holy Spirit and His Power at work within us. May this new year and all remaining years of my life be the Holy Spirit Domain. 

Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love. Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created. And You shall renew the face of the earth. The earth of my heart and soul. The earth of my daily priestly and missionary life. The earth of lives of all I love and serve.

O, God, who by the light of the Holy Spirit, did instruct the hearts of the faithful, grant that by the same Holy Spirit we may be truly wise and ever enjoy His consolations, Through Christ Our Lord, Amen.

Request

Our deacons, Augustino Mapambano and William Bahitwa who will be ordained in their home parishes on July 11 (William in Musoma Cathedral) and July 18 (Augustino in Kiabakari), asked me yesterday - as they were heading to Effeta Retreat Center in Makoko, Musoma in the evening to begin their retreat before the priestly ordination - for our prayers for them and for guidance of the Holy Spirit throughout the retreat. So I ask all of you, my esteemed readers, to keep an eye on them in your kind prayers and liturgical celebrations. May Christ, the Good Shepherd, form them in His liking through the power of His Spirit. Thank you in advance for your generous response.

Retreat - Saturday - Last Day Texts

Finally, we have arrived to the last day of our week-long retreat. Thanks be to God for this amazing time. Here are texts from today's morning and evening final Masses. Thank you all for your spiritual support the whole week. I appreciate it very much. God bless you much!

Retreat - Friday - Sixth Day Texts

The penultimate day of our week-long parochial faith awakening spiritual experience. The day for the sick and the day for the meditation on the mystery of the Cross. The conclusion of the day was the meeting with married couples taking on the issue of the crisis of the father figure in the world. Here are the texts:

Retreat - Corpus Christi Solemnity - Fifth Day Texts

Today the Holy Mother Church is celebrating the Solemnity of Corpus Christi. The Solemnity of the Most Holy Eucharist. Here is today's text of the homily and four short reflection at four altars during the Eucharistic Procession this afternoon in our parish. Please, continue praying for me and for the whole community taking part in this important spiritual exercise in the parish. Thanks in advance!

Retreat - Wednesday - Fourth Day Texts

Here are texts from today's spiritual talks.

Retreat - Monday - Second Day Texts

Here are texts of my spiritual talks from today, the second day of the parochial retreat.

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!

Goosebumps

Back home from ordination class 1988 jubilee retreat at Totus Tuus retreat center near Zembrzyce. It was a sacred time. I praise the Lord's name for our retreat master, Fr. Kazimierz Duraj, spiritual director from our major seminary. Absolutely mesmerizing spiritual talks and homilies. Tomorrow morning all of us will celebrate the Holy Mass at St. Stanislaus altar in Wawel cathedral presided by His Eminence Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, his three auxiliaries - bishops Jan Zając (our former rector), Jan Szkodoń (our former spiritual director) and our classmate Grzegorz Ryś. we expect most of our colleagues to make it to the cathedral - we are 59 left, so expect a huge concelebration. And all of us vested with the same stole - made for our ordination as deacons. Looking forward to this unique reunion at the same place we were ordained exactly twenty five years ago. We will sing again the same song we sung as newly ordained priests on that day - Pan jest Mocą swojego Ludu! Goosebumps...

Reunion

In a couple of hours I will be picked up by my classmate and our class chairman, Fr. Marek Hajdyła, and we will drive up to Zembrzyce, small town near Sucha Beskidzka, for our two days of prayer and ordination class reunion, before we celebrate our Silver Jubilee of Ordination on Wednesday, on the very day of our ordination, twenty five years ago. The Jubilee Mass will be celebrated in the cathedral on  Wawel Hill, presided by His Eminence, Stanisław Cardinal Diwisz, our former rector in major seminary - His Excellency Bishop Jan Zając, our former spiritual director - His Excellency Bishop Jan Szkodoń and our classmate - His Excellency Bishop Grzegorz Ryś.

I will carry all of you in my heart along with all intentions dear to your hearts. I promise my prayers for you and for your intentions. Please, pray for us, so the Holy Spirit on whose Solemnity we received our ordination to priesthood, guide and enlighten us, so may continue to go forth and bring abundant fruit of our faith and good deeds as faithful servants of God and His Church.

Wrapping Up The Retreat

As I waved my farewell to Fr. Alphonce vanishing in his pickup driving down the hill on his way to Mwanza, I felt overwhelmed by the goodness of the Lord who gave us these past four days of intense preaching, prayer, Eucharist and detachment from daily worries. I am deeply grateful to God for sending Fr. Alphonce to us. He was instrumental in bringing the message from God to us and I am happy that many of our parishioners showed up and participated. I pray now for his safe return to Mwanza and God's reward for his sacrifice for our sake. And I pray for ourselves, for abundant fruit of our inner conversion, our living faith which express itself in good deeds and staying away from the Evil One and his kingdom on earth. I pray for all of you, my friends and readers. God bless, protect and lead us all!

Faith Awakening Retreat

Tomorrow afternoon we will begin our special days of prayer, meditation, reflection, spiritual conferences and songs which will last till Sunday. 'Awakening Faith Retreat' or in kiswahili - Mafungo ya Kuamsha Imani, a special kind of parochial retreat.

We planned this spiritual experience in Lent time not only because of the sacredness of this season, but also as a spiritual preparation for the whole parochial community before we commit ourselves to the Great Deeds of the Year of Faith - in particular Holy Week and Holy Triduum, Novena of Divine Mercy and the Solemnity of Divine Mercy, then the pilgrimage to the roots of our faith to Uganda Martyrs and finally - priestly ordination of our deacon Agostino Mapambano and his thanksgiving Mass at parental home in Kiabakari.

Apart from these upcoming spiritual events, the implementation of development projects funded by Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and our own projects funded by fundraiser in Dar and Musoma later in April, will keep us extremely busy. We need to calm down first, we need to go to the Almighty God asking for strength, unity, serenity of mind and heart, focus on purpose and goals we set for ourselves this year. We cannot achieve anything without God's permission, blessing and power.

You are invited to join us starting tomorrow for this unusual spiritual meeting with Living God. Welcome all! Let us wake up in our faith and let our faith shine through great deeds of mercy!

Back To Where I Belong

I am glad my stay in Dar es Salaam is coming to its end. I do not belong here.

My place and my purpose of life is in Kiabakari. It was great to see friends, to put together our minds, talents, wits and efforts towards the noble goal of the fundraiser. It was rewarding to see people showing up and appreciating what we did. It was satisfying to see magnanimity of invited guests contributing generously to our cause. It was pleasant to sit down and wrap down in postmortem meeting the fundraising job in our preparatory committee company. It was nice to revisit people with compliments cards and reminding those who pledged about their commitments.

It was nice to read in the newspapers reports on the fundraiser, see the news on TBC1 and ITV channels and listen to news of the event in radio stations. Inspite of the fact that most of the news were incorrect and politicized, missing the reason of organizing the fundraising dinner and the main goals of the donations. Anyway, we differ in comprehension skills.

But now, time has come to pack and go. I do not get carried away by what has happened on Saturday evening. In fact, I feel as if nothing happened. Just a feeling of accomplishment and questioning myself if I could do more or better. But the answer comes - no, in my conscience I did everything I could in my powers. The rest I leave to God.

On Thursday afternoon we begin our popular mission in the parish in Kiabakari. I look forward to this important event of the Year of Faith. In kiswahili language, this kind of parochial spiritual experience is called - Mafungo ya Kuamsha Imani (Awakening Faith Retreat). Yes, we need to go back to our roots and awaken our faith in this time of grace. When I get back to Kiabakari tomorrow evening, I will have only 36 hours before the event begins. But we are ready. We have been ready for months. Our preparations ended long time ago. It is now only up to our parishioners and people of good faith to show up and participate fully.

It will be a great time for me to rest spiritually and mentally after some five months of hectic preparations for our fundraiser in Dar. It could not come in more opportune time, right after the immense mental effort. I feel so happy going back to Kiabakari. I will have a lot of time to silence myself, to pray, to meditate, to reflect, to thank God and people. Rest assured I will pray for all of you with grateful heart for helping us during the fundraising time with your well wishes and prayers.

Two Small Coins

“Jesus sat down opposite the treasury and observed how the crowd put money into the treasury. Many rich people put in large sums. A poor widow also came and put in two small coins worth a few cents. Calling his disciples to himself, he said to them, "Amen, I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all the other contributors to the treasury. For they have all contributed from their surplus wealth, but she, from her poverty, has contributed all she had, her whole livelihood."” (Mk 12:41-44)

A couple of weeks ago a letter came for the youth of Musoma Cathedral who asked me for a retreat here in Kiabakari, in the diocesan shrine of Divine Mercy. Some of those youth I worked with back in 2002-2006 when I was a pastor there. The letter brought back memories of that period and one particular moment of it, when the youth group of Musoma Cathedral asked me for a retreat day for them. I complied and we had a recollection day in the cathedral...

Into The Wilderness

Tomorrow is the day I will begin my personal retreat in solitude in the wilderness. It coincides with the beginning of the Year of the Faith, the fact I am very happy of. I humbly ask all of you for your kind prayers so that the Lord's Will is fulfilled in this time of silence, detachment and prayer. I will take all of you and all your intentions with me and will pray for you and them. I will be offline for eight days. Hopefully, this retreat I do in the jubilee year of my priesthood, will strengthen me to face boldly and calmly the challenges that lie ahead of me, my world and the Kiabakari community. Fiat Voluntas Tua, Domine!

I will come back to the blog after this experience. Take care for now!

Two Signs

Just a while ago I have finished the Holy Mass of the Solemnity of the Birth of Saint John the Baptist. As today is Friday, this Mass was the last event of the recollection day in the shrine, which dates back, as I wrote on my occasions, to 1994 when we were about to begin the construction of the parochial church, and has been continuing for 17 years now on each and every Friday of the year without interruption till today...

Father's Arms

The first day of the annual celebration of Divine Mercy Sunday in the diocesan shrine of Divine Mercy here in Kiabakari... A day of hiding in Loving Father's arms in His House on top of Divine Mercy Hill... A recollection day in the shrine for all members of parochial community - from Kiabakari Small Christian Communities and from all outstations... Like a day of closing our ranks in the face of gathering troops on the horizon ready to come down upon us starting from tomorrow...not in bad intention, but in their quest for living waters from Divine Mercy Ocean flowing out of this shrine...