When our heart and respiration stop, we will have only one worry left: that we cannot retrieve those moments that were given us to overcome our weakness. Therefore recently, when I feel overwhelmed by the following day, I cling to the hope that I will manage, even though I have no more strength left, and I thank for the new opportunity to grow.

I know what this famous magic of Christmas is all about!

It is about feeling in a shop the force of marketing and losing control over the contents of one’s wallet (that are increasingly more modest, oops).

Luckily, yesterday Saint Ignatius of Loyola, presented to chidren during the Rorate mass, helped me. He encourages to do everything  AMDG (ad maiorem Dei gloriam łac. – for the greater glory of God)!

And to concentrate our preperations for Christmas on this aspect, so as not to lose in our shopping and cooking (all the things that have to be cooked) what is most important. So that we have enough faith, like Zacharias (Luke 1: 5-25) in who we are waiting for!

„I will praise you, Lord” (Psalm 71) in all I do. Also in the preparations for Christmas.

And I wish the same to you today and in the coming days. 😉

Dosia

Not only for the following anniversary (it’s unbelievable how the time flies!), not only for the meetings with families on the retreats, for Programme 1 with 14 couples but also for the fact that I have spent all these years with families. It’s good to be with those who are responsible for the future of the Church and the world. 🙂

So far I managed to go to Szczecin for anniversary meetings with my colleagues. This year it was impossible, But it was good because… in this way I could spend this anniversary in the way I put into practice God’s invitation to be His priest: for families and with them.

Thank you for your kindness and prayers and that you remember me. The prayers give me strength and perseverance, they bring ideas into my head.

With my sincere blessings

Father Jay

When Fr Maximilian Maria Kolbe volunteered to replace a strange man in the underground starvation bunker in the Nazi Concentration Camp, an officer asked him who he was. His reply was: “A catholic priest”.

One could go on writing for miles about the meaning of these two words : about causing Our Lord to be tangibly present among us during each Holy Mass, about the service of reconcilliation, which adds up into thousands of hours, about being a father for dozens and hundreds of people who come to confide their difficulties and problems with a total trust, or about being a brother and “everything to everyone”.

On December,15th there was the 27th Anniversary of our Fr Jay’s Ordination. Bearing in mind the limitation of just one blog post, we can only express our gratitude to God our Father that He made him a Father to so many. Most probably Fr Jay would have been a great plumber, paratrooper or diver, but all those who owe him so much – their returns to faith, victories in martial crises and the support of his persistent prayer – give thanks to the Providence for making him a “Catholic priest”. And a priest who loves being a priest.

We would love to wish him God’s blessings and a lot of miracles of His love. It is good that you are there, Fr Jay – and that you are the way you are.

The Team of Editors

The following meeting is on Monday and then they will decide what to do next. Everything is in God’s hands. We need to remember that God likes our even craziest desires and He will gladly fulfil them if they are fully in the service of love. Oh, how much I love such crazy requests…

xj

in this month. First in Szczecinek (the first weekend of December), later in Łomianki and in the next weekend – in Katowice. Although we’ve had so many programmes (even this year; and how many in those five years?) and you keep repeating the same things, every time it is an unusual experience for me. Regardless of the place, regardless of the country (and this programme has seen several countries already) it is always a meeting with married couples who want to become better version of themselves.

It is a privilege to witness this struggle in the depths, of this destruction and new construction. I know that some may think that they are in a particularly difficult situation, that they are only fit for scrapping as it’s certainly too late for a general overhaul. Oh, How much I long to tell them that each good is difficult but it’s worth, worth making this effort. The more difficult it was in the beginning, the greater happiness comes later.

I ask all of you, who have completed programme 1,2, 3 or 4, give them your care, prayers and good deeds. Let even the smallest gesture for your husband and wife go this weekend to those who fund it really hard. To whom shall God listen more than to married couples praying for other married couples?

For I am the LORD your God who takes hold of your right hand and says to you: Do not fear; I will help.

(Isaiah 41,13)

Yesterday, early in the morning, father Professor Jerzy Bajda left for a better place.

He’s always been in the Institute. I used to listen to his lectures and later I was privileged to work with him. He was a great man. Free in all aspects. He didn’t keep anything for himself. He chose to live at his friends’ place, although he could live anywhere. He would always arrive by bus, well protected against the unpleasant caprices of the weather. He was always joyful and smiling.

I seem to connect him with 29, Humanae vitae and especially with the fragment ‘bitterly severe toward sin, but patient and abounding in mercy toward sinners’. He always fought for the truth. Though I know that not many readers of our blog were able to know that man (unless they read his materials), I would like to mention him. There are only a few who understand the teaching of John Paul II as well as he did. We can count on his prayers. And now let us pray for him.

Fr Jay