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?

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

It’s so good that Małgosia has counted how many days of Advent we have. Right away we get some motivation. It is not the WHOLE Advent but only 22 days that pass so quickly. It is a bit like on a marathon: you notice first the first ten, then you count the kilometres to the first half, then 30 km, and then you start how much is left until the end. Only 12, 11, 10…

We all know how fast the days fly away. So it’s worth making each of them special by making my resolution. Whatever it is, the aim is always not my “perfection” but the joy of others. What do I care for a big resolution if I haven’t brought any joy to those around me? In Szczecinek on Sunday we finished the programme I+You=We. It was so good to see those wives and husbands who during the Holy Mass at the end looked at one another with so much tenderness and smile. Let this Advent bring the most beautiful smiles to our near and dear.

With a smile for you, my beloved

Fr Jay 🙂

I don’t know about you, but I love beginnings. Although immediately the words from my Latin class spring to my mind that omnes principium difficile (every beginning is difficult), I keep looking forward to every new beginning. This is the opportunity to correct all the past failures, to get involved in something new, this is always a solemn moment. A new academic year, a new running season (let me remind you that it starts in the winter 😉 ), a new skiing season (although it does not really apply to me because I don’t ski very well), a new… So many important things that only just start.

And today is the beginning of the new church year. It is so important to me. More and more the most important one. Some time ago the dividing line used to be the new school year. Then, for a while, it was the calendarl year, starting on the 1st of January, and later – the working year – the new academic year. But now my heart rejoices most at the new church year because I am more in the Church than anywhere else.

We start with new resolutions, with a new zeal, we start  the efforts of self-improvement –  to make our nearest and dearest even happier, so that the world becomes more beautiful thanks to me.

Fr Jay

When in Florence I was boarding the plane to Frankfurt, I spotted a young and athletic dark-skinned guy. He walked, accompanied by two managers (?), slightly limping. We met again in Frankfurt, sitting next to each other’s tables in the restaurant zone where I was to wait for 5 hours for my connection to Warsaw.

I was wondering whether he’d won the marathon, so I just went towards him and asked (on the plane I saw the photo of the fastest few, neither of them was white). However, it turned out that he hadn’t because of the injury that had thwarted his plans of winning. He came… fourth. Time: 2:12. They asked about my time, too. ‘Almost 2 hours later, but 16 minutes before the last one’ , I said. And later, when the men left to catch their plane, I saw that one of them had left a charger cable. I chased off after them and caught the marathon runner. He thanked me whole-heartedly we shook our hand and said goodbye with a smile.

We, the marathon runners. may score different times at the finishing line but we all respect one another because each of us has to win over ourselves.

Thank you very much for all your kind words of support and congratulations. We’re all one in everything.

With my sincere prayers

Fr Jay

Yesterday each of us proudly exposed their medals. In the restaurants, in the streets. Those who ran understand it very well; and let those who didn’t – at least see them 🙂 A medal that we put in a rucksack today will be a reminder and motivation tomorrow.

We’ll be going back soon. This was the second time I’d visited Florence bacuse of the marathon and I must say that I know this city quite well from the perspective of  42,195 km (of course, multiplied by 2). And since I went then only because of the marathon, I took the last plane to Florence and the first plane after the race. There was not time to do any sightseeing. Maybe I’ll do it next time I run the marathon?

Afterwards – looong waiting time for a change in Frankfurt and a late return home. After the last marathon, since that was not yet the end of the season, I heard the following advice: ‘This week’s going to be a rest. Running only 3 times 12-14 km’. That’s how marathon runners take their rest. But now it’s the end of the season and we can laze around a bit. Winter is the time to get in shape. I don’t really have better running experiences than running on fresh snow in the forest. Of course it’s harder but instead the running strength grows. And we’re getting prepared for the marathon in the spring because there is still weakness that we have to overcome, and because we have to ask more of ourselves, because… Everyone fills in something for themselves.

See you on the running tracks. See you in the spring (or later) somewhere at the marathon.

Greetings for everyone

Fr Jay

The marathon is completed, and this with the result of my life. I do not know yet precisely, what the time was because just before the start my watch let me down and refused to operate. I know that the gross result was 4:14. The tail of the marathon where I found my proper place had to wait for a while before the time was measured.

The strategy was as follows: I start with those who ran 4:30 and than after a while I leave them and run at my own pace. Then I catch those who aim at 4:15 and I run to the finishing line. That’s what I did. I caught them before the half-way point and since I enjoyed running, I went on going at my own pace. The idea was that if I hit the wall, I could always come back to them. And I was right. Though I finished before them, I owe it to their pace makers that in spite of weakness I worked myself up and kept the pace.

Marathon is something special. This is a big challenge, an opportunity to face up to a real weakness when all that’s left is the will to fight while the body says “Enough”. On many, exceptionally many occasions I saw other runners who gave up or, worse still, were taken by ambulances. This shows that it is s true challenge. We know very well what’s happened with our runner at the half-marathon on the Uznam Island. I am proud of him because he didn;t give up and he keeps on training.

Next year we’ll fight again. And now we’re going to celebrate.

Fr Jay

I’ve received the start number. After a short night… first by train to Florence, then a run to Andrzej and together to the place where the marathon is going to start tomorrow. I’ll run with a Friend who encouraged me to take part in the marathon – and took me to the marathon in Florence two years ago. It was my first one and my first result: 4:34:19. In September I ran from Świnoujście, Poland, to Wolgast, Germany: 4:24:12. this time maybe itill be 4:14? Today I can hardly believe it. It’s been the day of a crisis, but also of a great excitement.

It was nice to receive so much of a positive feedback from other marathon runners, that “it’s great that a priest also runs”. Some of them ensured they would let their parish priests know about it – that they could do it, too. Maybe one day we’ll organize a marathon for priests…

Anyway, the marathon is just about to begin. At 9:00 p.m. European time. Please, bear in mind the prayer-support-for-Father-Jay emergency till 13:30 at least.

I’ll let you know as soon as I’ve made it.

See you then,

Fr Jay