It’s like a summary of the retreat. The old principle of retreats was: intra totus, mane solus, exi alius (enter whole, stay on your own, leave different).
Enter whole – remember who you are as a WHOLE, you who are so often reduced to the role of a worker, driver, bath maid or a storyteller.
Stay on your own so as to hear the voice of Jesus and to reflect whether your “career path” fully covers the vocation you have received.
Leave different – in the best, consistent and true version of yourself, that is worthy of who you are – a relational creature, created in love and image of God who has been loving you since the versy first moment of your life.
Everyone is so beautiful in the chapel. And there’s so much enthusiasm and hope in the moment of renewal of the vows. The married couples have known different moments but they all have a common desire: to be a better husband/ a better wife.
Remembering about you
Father Jarosław
“Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household”. (Ephesians 2: 19)
For the Lord even what we think of ourselves is important, how we call ourselves. He knows how these words can lift us up and strengthen us and which words have the opposite effect. He wants us to have a helathy self-confidence built on Him. Therefore He gives us through His wor a beautiful identity: fellow citizens with God’s people and members of His household. He looks at us as His people. He invites us to be His dear and near, members of His household.
When we believe His word and look at Him with His eyes, it alsways lead us to a happier and better “me”.
Basia
Today the words from the Book of Sirach touched me again: “He set his eye upon their hearts to shew them the greatness of his works”. You can only see well wth your heart. This is thanks to “his eye”. Only He can show us the whole truth. “And he gave to every one of them commandment concerning his neighbour.” He is so worried about our relations. He knows that our eyes are quick to spot what hurts us, what is danger and what others lack. And we should look at reality with His eyes. Therefore “his eye on our hearts”.
Five couples, each with ther own history, their difficulties, expectations, desires. Correcting perspectives, attitudes, sensibilities. We need to depart from what is ours to live at His scale, to lve up to God’s invitations, to live in His image. “He gave them counsel, and a tongue, and eyes, and ears, and a heart to devise: and he filled them with the knowledge of understanding”. We need to resurrender to Him.
Six simple steps that are supposed to rebuild in us Sześć prostych kroków, które mają odbudować in us what is worthy of Him and the vocation to marriage.
Today so many married couples have prayed for us. Also the group of couples from Programme 1 in Mexico joined the prayer. They were the last group to pass the Programme. They know how important it is that the participants are prayed for so there was a prayer flowing from before the image of Mary of Guadalupe. Dziś za nas modliło się tyle małżeństw. Dołączyła do tej modlitwy grupa małżeństw z Programu 1 w Meksyku.
The world united in the worry for the beauty of marriage. The civilisation of live crosses all borders and unites everyone. “That they might praise the name which he hath sanctified: and glory in his wondrous acts, that they might declare the glorious things of his works”. Glory be to God.
With a thankful prayer for you all
Father Jarosław
Sometimes it is worth quarrelling with the Husband, to finally remmber that:
– it’s difficult to come up with “sorry” earlier than him,
– he has good intentions just as I do and he fails just as I do,
– he’s so wonderfully creative that he can make a beautiful – and memorable – morning out of a spoilt evening:
Our repeated texts in a quarrel mean boredom that depresses us so often once the emotions quieten down. But the real challenge is in what comes afterwards.
M
In Belleville, Illinois, in the Mississippi River valley, the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI) have built a sanctuary of Our Lady of the Snow, in memory of their service in the Arctic. Today it is a place where various groups hold their retreats. And this is where the organizers of the upcoming I+YOU=WE couple reatreat (from the neighbouring Diocese of Springfield) managed to find place for us.
Today I met two married couples who had taken part in I+YOU=WE (during its 2nd edition in Omaha: Brad & Audrey Bolt, and Deacon Patrick & Daniele O’Toole). They invited Fr Brian Alford to join our Program 1. Unfortunately, he won’t be able to stay with us for long, but he’ll be here whenever that does not interfere with his duties in the parish.
We spent the evening on looking through all the workshop outlines, checked the schedule, rooms, meals and all other items which must be ready for Saturday and Sunday ahead.
I’m surprised again that the couples remember so much from their own participation in the Program, and how much they were able to change in their lives for good.
Patrick, for example, after the retreat asked his wife how he could really help her, so that she could see his real concern for her. She didn’t say anything, leaving him freedom of choice. He chose the laundry. For the last 15 months, Daniele has never gone dwonstairs to the basement to do the laundry. They’re both happy about it. So am I.
The second edition of Program 1 in Springfield Diocese is on. We offer it to Our Lady of the Snow and the Holy Family.
From Belleville
Fr. Jay
You are this change that you want to see in the world (in the relationship, at home, at work… fill in as you please).
Małgosia
I don’t know really, why I, as a man, find myself so “far” from the flowers that my wife, as a woman, likes so much. The flower shop is so close. I could even order flowers every day, knocking on my wall, with Morse code.
But… every day a flower, when I’m busy with so many things and problems? I ‘ve bought flowers already, it was only a month a go, well, perhaps three months ago, because it was for her birthday. What if I simply added flowers to normal shopping? It could be then regular.
After a lengthy analysis, many decisions and about ten unsuccessful attempts I did it and a bouquet, the expression of disinterested love, came back to the vase. Well, manhood is a difficult material. Not only for a woman. But I, as a man, like challenges.
And all this because “what do need love for if we don’t show it” *
Michał
*heard in some film.
//
The most expected time of year, every year. The closer to it, the more joy in my heart.
Each year, it is a bit different. For one thing – becuase the subject of my meditation is different, secondly – because I’m getting to know the hermitage and begin to adjust. Initially the tool re-designing my life, making up for the lost time, asking for some special grace – it is becoming simply a meeting place. The time of a mystery. I’m a child at his Father’s, a brother – at his Brother’s…
Its simple and harsh beauty (no electricity, no bathroom, no tap water, and you have to make fire to get warm) efficiently restores my desire for being radical and free from gadgets. 😉
Even the wrist-watch is no longer necessary: it is enough to follow the rythm of the day marked by the light falling through the windows. The whiteness outside helps one see the world in its pure version. The tiny chapel, surprisingly, is capable of storing not only all the angelic choirs and my beloved Saints, but also so many of You, whose place is constantly in my heart and my prayer.
See you after.
xj
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 🙂
What do I do when you say that all is lost, that you’ve spoilt everything and that nothing makes sense any more?
I wipe your tears. Then I put my hand on your head and I say: My Child, My beautiful and beloved Child.
Jesus
