“We had all gone astray like sheep, each following his own way; but the LORD laid upon him the guilt of us all.” (IS 53: 6)

“We had all gone astray” from God. We are loved and respected by God, but we decided, so many times in our lives, to “follow our own way.” God is always taking care of us and never tired of forgiving. God laid upon Our Lord “the guilt of us all.”

“Christ became obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Because of this, God greatly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every other name.” (Gospel Acclamation)

“So when he had washed their feet and put his garments back on and reclined at table again, he said to them, ‘Do you realize what I have done for you? You call me ‘teacher’ and ‘master,’ and rightly so, for indeed I am. If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another’s feet. I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do.’” (JN 13: 12-15)

Washing feet, the duty of servants, was done for the apostles by their “teacher and master,” by Our Lord. God himself gives them “a model to follow,” so that as He has done for them, they should also do for others. We will see this during Holy Thursday’s Evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper, but everyone is invited to respect and protect any other person’s dignity, to see her/him as better than me, as someone worthy of love, respect and service.

“I give you a new commandment, says the Lord: love one another as I have loved you.” (Gospel Acclamation)

We enclose our best Easter wishes of Our Lord’s continual blessings for you, your homes, families and work.

Thank you for being with us. This gives us joy, which we can share with you, faith that this work matters, and strength to go on.
The Family Support Foundation’s Team

We can operate only with your support in so many ways:

– your help with organizing the Programs (Thank you so much for your commitment. If it hadn’t been for you, the Programs would have not taken place at all in so many new locations),
– your talents (we need them),
– your financial help (with monthly or one-time donations), because our budget is Providence-dependent, and its limitations do not let us do as much as we would like to for the couples.

You will find our paypal button HERE.

Every Tuesday a special Mass is celebrated for all our supporters as one way to express our sincere gratitude. You remain in our grateful prayers and thoughts and in the bonds of friendship, which grow through working side by side.

We are also happy to inform you that in January 2015, Fr. Szymczak and Małgorzata Rybak finished writing their book, which is now being reviewed; we are hoping to publish it soon. We also hope that one day you will be able to read it in English. Every day you can read Fr. Jay’s short homilies in English on our blog. We give special thanks to Carol Dillon who supports us faithfully with her outstanding proofreading skills.

On June 12-14, 2015, an international Program 3: OUR FAMILY+SOCIETY will take place in Wrocław, followed by the first meeting of FamilyCare Centers from Poland and abroad. We hope to exchange experiences and share our best practices with the newly emerging centers.

We are happy that our Centers are also growing abroad: the largest of them are in Omaha, Nebraska, USA (at the Pope Paul VI Institute, founded by Dr. Thomas W. Hilgers, the originator of NaProTechnology); Belgium; Mexico City and Glasgow, Scotland. In Omaha we are greatly supported by the PPVII staff and by Fr. Michael Voithoffer, who runs the monthly follow-up meetings with couples. We are hoping to start cooperation with the priests from Hastings (Nebraska) where the Program will be presented at the beginning of May 2015. Also in May 2015, Bogota (Colombia) will host their first “I+YOU=WE” Program.

Also in May of this year we’re planning a Program in Austria, which has been kept waiting for a long time since the first edition of “I+YOU=WE” for German speaking couples was developed.

To organize our Programs abroad we need a huge amount of translation work. In 2013 Małgorzata Rybak translated Program 2: WE+FAMILY into English, and in 2014 Agnieszka Buczkowska from the Belgium FamilyCare Center translated the Program for Fiancées. The English version of Program 3 is being prepared. All the time we need to translate promotional and information materials, coach training outlines and many other things.

We are also looking for priests willing to learn to present the Programs. The Polish Conference of Bishops (its National Family Pastorate Center, chaired by Fr. Przemysław Drąg) supported these efforts by asking Fr. Jarosław (“Jay”) Szymczak to present our Programs at meetings for family counselors in Polish dioceses. This has resulted in requests for training people to run the Programs locally.

At a meeting of Fr. Szymczak and Agnieszka Rogalska (the Programs’ co-author) with the Chairman of the Polish Conference of Bishops, Archbishop Stanisław Gądecki blessed our efforts and encouraged us to continue our mission. We are also hoping to obtain the patronage of the Council for the Family at the Polish Conference of Bishops.

We are working hard to prepare clear rules of cooperation with new locations, to improve the training materials and the procedures of coach certification, and to unify the guidelines for ongoing formation. The load of work seems to exceed our capacity, but with God’s help and your invaluable support, good things continue to happen.

Since Program 1: I+YOU=WE has become so popular that it is no longer possible to offer it at all the places that ask for it, we decided to assign some of the work we do to specific FamilyCare Centers (preferably co-operating with FertlityCare Centers). You can find their list on our Foundation’s website.

The main centers in Poland are Wrocław and Łomianki. FamilyCare Centers are intended to create the environment for ongoing formation of Program 1 (or 2, 3 and 4) graduates, for training new coach couples and for mutual support among the families. The Centers also assist smaller locations in organizing the Programs.

In 2013 Cardinal Kazimierz Nycz accepted our Program for Fiancées: “GAUDIUM et SPES. Joy and Hope,” as one of the obligatory marriage preparation courses in the Warsaw Archdiocese (Poland). This initiated a series of trainings for priests and coach couples, which last to this day. The couples who enroll in this Program are still more numerous than we are able to admit.

You can read about the Program HERE.

Dear Friends and Supporters of the Family Support Foundation,

Dear Graduates of Love and Life Programs,

For a long time, we have wanted to share with you the joys and challenges of our Foundation’s work, but we needed to focus on the work. We’re an organization operating “in a garage,” connecting people of goodwill who think they can make a small contribution in order to leave the world a better place. As the time of Easter approaches, we would like to give you a glimpse of our work.

In the few subsequent blog posts you can read about Love and Life Programs in Poland and worldwide.

Thank you for being with us!

The Family Support Foundation Team