Last year I wrote about one of the firms producing running shoes (my favourite one, by the way): “A good day is when we get to run. A great day is when we inspire someone else to run.”

For a week I’ve been training with Paul, the eldest son of Mrs and Mr Hilgers. We started the trainings in a calm pace, although at a fairly ambitious distance – 5 km. At the beginning we had the speed of 7.2 km/h. Today we’ve run over 6 km with the speed 9.2km/h (testing at the same time the new running shoes). Paul has had today also his first sprint uphill (more for the joy of running than for the needs of the training). And he calculated his strength in such a way that he had enough until the end.

It is such a joy to observe someone making his first steps on running routes. During the training we have time to explain the methods of building the condition, diversifying the training, specialist running and in general -to rejoice that we are active. Wise and experienced people say that only 2% of adults are able to run for 1 km. We are happy then that we are in the lead.

It’s difficult to think of a better preparation for the day than a run at dawn. In Omaha it is still almost winter time. There is no snow lying around but we still have it when it snows and days are cold. But for runners it’s even better.
From running routes in Omaha

Fr Jay

“Be fruitful and multiply!”. How many people today are willing to take this commandment seriously? Well… we are!

I would like to unite in joy and prayer with all my brothers and sisters from Poland and throughout the world.

My name is Tatiana de Melo and I have just returned from the United States where I was taking Educational Phase II in the process of becoming a FetilityCare Practioner of the Creighton Model System. Getting to know this incredible Natural Family Planning method was a true blessing. It has already changed for better my life, my marriage and is about to change so many people’s lives too.

I had the honor to meet Mikal Godziev and father Jay (well you write your names correctly in Polish) and we were very happy for being able to help a little spread the culture of life in our homelands.

We have great challenges ahead of us but assisted by God’s Grace nothing can stop us!

Tatiana

All day yesterday passed by with the focus on the power of those words. After the week of such a hard work – they brought so much comfort. No one and nothing will defeat God’s love. His love is with me every day. How good it is to imagine that He is holding my hand.

Because of the great sense of tiredness, the whole day was passing by as if in slow motion. Except for the waking up part, as I got up very early to meet the Faculty members at breakfast, which we had together before they left – each to their homes. Impressions from the most wonderful moments, apperaciation for the great effort of all involved…

And the most important joy – that He gave us strength and His grace, and that all that is happening for His glory. God of love and life. And He is showing His love to us all the time – He is holding your hand and won’t let anybody snatch you out of it. He won’t let us part from Him even through our weaknesses.

Tired but happy to be able to take part in something bigger than us,

And always close to you

Fr. Jay 

has completed the immersion course. That is always a very solemn day. After the evening Mass there is the closing ceremony and then – endless farewells. It is really difficult to part. Even though it happens repeatedly every year, each time it touches your heart. People who were strangers a couple of days ago, now find it so hard to say goodbye.

As one of the Participants noted on her blog, that is probably the only course in the area of medical science where the participants gather every day at the morning Mass. And they treat it very seriously. This is where all the proximity has its source.

Eucharist makes us closest to each other. Today Lord Jesus tells us again that He is holding our hands and will never let anyone separate us from Him. What a joy, what comfort.

With prayer from Omaha,

Fr. Jay

– or Praying Mantis Club. The tradition of Wrocław, Poland. Yesterday again.

For how many years have we met in the company of wives? We tried to count, but even though women have a detailed mamory for EVERYTHING, we didn’t manage.

When I call the restaurant to book a table and I say: for 9 women, the man I’m talking to understands what I mean when I’m asking for a quiet place somewhere aside. Then, I and Dear Jacket are desperately trying to find an-impossible-to-find-on-friday-evening parking place and I have to call him again to keep the table for us – and he understands, too.

And he keeps calm when he’s waiting for us to place an order – and we are talking all at once and to one another, multiplying anegdotes on the subject of  parking the car, drinking wine and calories*. We’re not worried that half the items listed in the menu are unavailable and simply not there.  It’s important that WE are here. Wearing high-heeled shoes and necklaces, because it is our time, when it’s not our usual turn to serve the table. Even though we love our Families very much, we need to feel – from time to time – like princesses.

Halfway through the meeting we’re joined by a friend of ours, who’s just driven from another city, 100 km away. A couple of years ago, in similar company, we bid farewell to her, because their whole family was leaving for Manchester, UK. We promised we would visit her. And so we did. The Praying Mantis Club conquered Manchester, too.

After several hours the waiter is asking if we need anything else. And we say, no, thank you, we’re fine. But I wouldn’t like to have you seating at an empty table, he insists. – But we have our mouths full… of words – Danusia replies.

With warmest regards from Poland for a change,

Margaret

*Do you know what calories are? Marta explained it to us: Calories are little dwarves who take in our dresses at the waist while we’re asleep. 

The traditional dinner out for the Faculty on the last day before the end of Education Program took place yesterday at DJ’s Dugout Sports Bar.

As soon as you go in, you feel the place was created with you in mind. Loud music, which virtually makes any conversation impossible, and all the walls covered with screens showing all possible sports. Too loud to talk, so you can just “sit around” over the fastfood meal and watch lazily all the screens, not having to bother to switch the channels. In one word: perfect masculine world.

I look at the tables nearby and it turns out that women have come here, too. They don’t mind the tv screens, or the noise, because they have more important thing to be concerned about – conversation. How different it is from the “men’s” tables, where you generally just look in front of you. And if any conversation happens, it is to comment what’s on the screen.

Two worlds. Different and interesting. To understand each of them, to put them together to form one entity – that’s a lifetime adventure. And it’s worth lifetime.

From Omaha, noisy today

Fr. Jay

They can change our lives so much and centre them around people and not about things to do.

Today, on a winter’s morning, I went for a run (and to think that in Poland it’s so warm and here I shiver from cold before I do the warm-up. It’s so unfair!). The rain changed smoothly into nagging hail and then into snow. But I didn’t wait for this last development. Beaten with hail, I had an additional motivation to come back home as soon as possible.

On the way I met some cars that waited to join the traffic. It is really so nice when you see the drivers pull back when they see you running so that you don’t have to change your route. It is a simple gesture but not seen for the first time and it is always so heart-warming. Someone has seen you and helped you as much as he could. And ten someone will hold the lift for you or bring you some water. Our life consists of so many small gestures. You can find so much kindness in them.

I send you greetings, full of kindness.

Fr. Jay

continuation…

As you can see, our Men’s Club has grown in number:

October 2012, you can read about it HERE

April 2013

In keeping with the tradition, during EP in Omaha there is one evening out for men exclusively. The menu and the place remain the same: Anthony’s Steakhouse.

Of course “to have a steak” was just an excuse – the real goal was to meet again, talk, be with one another. Every of us has a different story to tell, and different experience, so it is good to listen to one another and discover how much we can share and pass forward.

This time we were joined by guys from France, Poland, Mexico and Peru – and apart from other new men in the club, we also had two American priests. How good it is to know we can count on each other. If need be, we know were to look for each other. Because the support among men is always necessary. And what’s more – women liked the idea of men’s evening a lot. They know that men need their own company  from time to time. And afterwards, they come back as better people. 🙂

Fr. Jay

When I look at the education program participants, it feels like home. They look just like our external students. The overwhelming majority are women, some of them expecting children, there are the husbands who look after children while their wives have classes. The breaks are filled with convesrations and the classroom is filled with prayers, becoming a chapel for us. It’s no wonder we had the sense of proximity right from the start.

Maybe that’s why it’s easier to endure the sense of longing for home. In places like that everyone feels important, needed, loved. So this is the time not only of an intense immersion study, but also of a retreat. You can pull yourself together, get ready for the mission, for the service. And the first and foremost message is: “I want to help you, because you are a very important person to me.”

Remembering all of you, especially those at Home,

Fr. Jay

We  are all thunderstruck with the news. Terrorism has never got this far. But maybe there is some logic in it. Hatred towards human being must reach also those areas where man is trying to challenge his weakness and find enough inner strength when all in his body and soul is crying for rest, for giving up. At the marathon finish line there are no losers, even if you failed to carry out your timing plan. My friend, a marathon runner, told me once: “there is no result, but no shame either” (he took part in this marathon too, and arrived at the finish 15 minutes before the explosions. Fortunately, he’s fine). Anyobody who reaches the end, carries to the finish line all the hours of training and the effort they cost. And that is a great value in itself: through training you’ve learned to be systematic, hardworking, you’ve deepened your sense of duty and got used to overcoming difficulties, obstacles, and pain…

I pray for those who lost their lives, and for those who are fighting for life in hospitals. I pray for marathon runners, because they inspire us to desire to be “better versions of oursevles”.

Tomorrow morning I’ll offer my running for them, adding the sweat of effort to the words of my prayer.

Praying for you, too

Fr. Jay