Baptismal Font, Cistercian Abbey in Krzeszów, Poland

Bartek, EyesWideOpen

To express what I felt last weekend, I will tell you a fragment of the history of my life. Although I grew inside a Catholic enviroment, as soon as I could I left the Church and tried to live a life of my own, counting only on my own strength. After some difficult years when I felt alone, only thanks to Asia I had the oportunity to reach to Christ again. I usually accompanied Asia to the Mass on Sunday, and whenever I looked at the Cross, I saw that Christ was alive, that this was not only a piece of wood inside a beautifull building. My conversion started then, on those Masses, where I was toghether with my wife. And I felt love in my heart, big love from outside. When I looked at the elderly women who had come to the Mass, I did not look at them with sceptical eyes. I no loger accused them of being hypocritical, I only felt love for those people. At that time I lost my job, and the first thing I did was to look for my wife and toghether we went to the church to get this PEACE, this love I had felt many times before. Well, this was the beginning of my re-encounter with Christ.

Before the last weekend, at home with Asia everyhting was really difficult; as we were not able to live toghether, we started to live a relationship built on compromise, in which we used to disturb each other as little as possible to avoid arguments. On Saturday, during the first workshop when I had to describe my wife I felt a huge love for her, only comperarable to the one I felt those days in the church, a love which only God can give us. This is why I’m sure God wants to strengthen our marriage. He gave us that weekend, He gave me each person I met and listened to – to renew our marriage. That is why on Sunday we were able to renew our marriage vows, and I feel I have received a new strenght and encouragement to start this new stage. I only beg God to help me fight with my weaknesses and to keep  evil far away from our marriage.

Peace be with you.

Jesús G.N.M.*

*Jesús and his Wife Asia took part in the I+YOU=WE Program held in Wrocław, Poland, last weekend. [note from Editors]

“What shall I return to the Lord for all his goodness to me?I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord” (Ps 116, 12-13)

I forget too easily – under the burden everyday cares – to thank the Lord for all that He has planned for me. What can I do, when I’m too tired to sing glory?

Maybe in times of short text messages (when you can sum up the whole communication with a colone and half-bracket) – it would be good to text the Lord? When it’s hard and all goes wrong – simply: “Jesus, I trust you”, and in the moments of success: “My Lord and my God!” (because I’m a tool in His hands).

So I tap on the keyboard my everyday message to my Best Friend and I let Him act, create and heal. And I’m waiting for His answer. He always writes back.

Karolina

Round anniversary of our friends’ wedding… Occasion not so extraordinary… But…

When four years and a half ago we were expecting our middle child to be born, She was waiting, too. We exchanged the news “from our bellies.” Their son was born first. Earlier than ours. And not in a way that all had expected.

He was baptized very quickly in hopsital, before his first (then it turned out – one of several that followed) operation. Afterwards – there were four years of struggle, of everyday laborious rehabilitation… Strength and kindness flowed from that Family. Small successes. Small joys.

So the Anniversary Mass is not quite ordinary. Because it takes place in the Intensive Care Unit, in hospital. The four-year old child is unconscious, and his parents, engulfed with pain, are asking the Lord to keep him alive, if He wants him to be healed. On the other hand, they are close to accepting the doctors’ diagnoses – so they ask for no more suffering for their child.

And there is this extraordinary priest with these extraordinary words. Not preaching about the pain. Not talking about leaving and losing. About Love. About the support that the spouses may give to each other. And that in the first place, the Husband is there for his Wife, and the Wife – for her Husband. And only then for their children, and for the rest of the family.

He also talks about the Marriage Vows – that they never become outdated, they have no expiry date. And that one for the other is a support on their way to salvation. And that it is Love that wins. And Love brings peace.

And that it’s good to be grateful for all the good things – and cherish the memory of those things, multiply them and share them. In good times and in bad.

That was the sermon, in those circumstances. Addressed so much to me. Also to me. To you, too… ?

Agnieszka

PS. A couple of hours after the Mass I recieve a text message that the doctors have declared the child’s brain dead and the small Angel is already in Heaven.

Each state in the United States has a slogan that represents their state. The slogan for Nebraska is “The Good Life!”. Nebraska is an excellent state to raise a family. It is not a very large state.  In fact, there are more cows than people who live here!

Fr. Jay left Nebraska today for his home in Poland. During his time here he was the spiritual shepherd  for 100 students from 16 countries and 29 states in the United Stateswho attended our advanced training in FertilityCare and NaProTechnology. These students  greatly appreciated his participation as a spiritual father to them.

This is the first time in over 30 years of conducting our education programs that we had a priest as a fulltime Faculty member. The Pope Paul VI Institute Faculty and Staff were very grateful that Fr. Jay could come to Nebraska to assist us.

Our program concluded  late Saturday evening.  This morning, I drove from Omaha to Lincoln,  Nebraska and took this photo of  the Chapel of the Holy Family* that serves the travelers along interstate 80 that connects much of the United States east to west.

For each of us, we want to live the “Good Life” but, even more importantly, a better life!  Certainly, with a focus on faith and family, this will happen!  Fr. Jay, and his love of the Lord and sharing with us during his stay here, indeed helped us focus on leading lives that will be not just “good” but better and better.

Thank you, Fr. Jay!

Sue Hilgers, Omaha, April 23, 2012

*More impressions from the Holy Family shrine at the outskirts of Omaha, Nebraska:

For more photographs, please see HERE.

The Indian poet Kabir (1440-1518) says in a poem that we often hope to meet God in a moment of time. Little do we realize that this moment is with the person at the side of us! How true is it that we often search for God but are rarely aware that he resides in each and every person we meet! “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor. 6 : 19-20)
It was wonderful that I lived all my life in Calcutta in India before moving to the city of Chennai where I reside now.

I had the opportunity to visit Wrocław in Poland and loved the city and the people. When people in Poland asked me about the name of the city that I live in India, almost no one had heard about the city of Chennai! Some did not know New Delhi which is what Warszawa is to Poland. However, it was beautiful to know that everyone knew about Calcutta! The main reason was because of Mother Teresa. The wonderful nun who dedicated her life to the Jesus she saw in every person! “Each one of them is Jesus in disguise” is what she said about the poor and downtrodden that she was a shining light to.

As a young boy, I had the opportunity to meet her a few times. It’s hard to forget the first time I met this saintly nun. She was sitting in a corner on the floor of the chapel at the Missionaries of Charity house. One could hear (and even today you can hear) the bustling street outside – cars honking, trams passing by noisily and buses restarting their engines. However, this beautiful lady was absorbed in prayer. Today, there is a statue in the place where she used to sit, absorbed in prayer even though there was so much noise around!

I end this post with these thoughts of seeing God in everyone we deal with during this week and to continue our dialogue with God through this gift of time we have.
Have a lovely week!

Joseph