Programme 1

October 1, 2013 10:59 pm

Every time we’re supposed to run one of the Programmes, I am asked to prepare a post to the Harbour. We could count one day how many such notes I’ve made already. It is becoming a challenge for the writer – how many times you can announce the same Programme, how many times you can write about the same things that are going to happen?

Today, when I was planning the new entry, I thought about… myself. So many years, the same texts… It is a bit like the same perfomance over and over again… and still differently, although there are many elements in common.

Yesterday evening I read all the surveys. I tried to imagine all the situations described- often so dramatic and painful. In the coming hours I will be able to touch them, show their roots, suggest possible solutions. The same Programme, the same human problems, and yet always the meeting with a living human beaing that longs for marital happiness  that’s inexplicably gone. But perhaps it is possible to explain? But how should I say it so that they may want to do something about it?

Please support our couples and the trainers with your prayers

Father Jarosław

Programme 1 in Łomianki

May 26, 2013 9:47 pm

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

Brussels – Programme 1

March 10, 2013 8:59 am

Our friends from Brussels, Agnieszka and Rafal, ardent supporters of Programme 1, have organised again Programme 1 for Poles working in Belgium – this time it was for 7 couples. As migrant families can only count on themselves and there are no grandparents, family members or neighbours that could take care of children), the parents came with the kids. People who took part in last year’s Programme 1 have organised activities for children and the parents have time for themselves.

This time we meet in Brussels, in the house of the Good Shepherd Community. Several different houses, all rather poor, clean but it’s clear that the days of their glory are long gone. They welcome different groups, unfortunately mostly elderly people. So in the dining room a big group of elderly persons meet with our group full of children, where the youngest one is only 7 months old, and the majority is around 5 years old. The elderly look with joy at our kids. Their grandchildren must be grown-up, they may even have great-grandchildren. A look at children is always a look into the future. The more children there are ,the more joyous this future is.

I remember here a conversation from Scotland. A Scotsman expressed his discontentment with the fact that his Polish colleague from work had so many children who were a burden for the state budget. He heard the answer that those children would be in the future the source of income for the country. He was then silent.

The future of the Church and of the world depends on the family, in the words of blessed John Paul II. It’s so good that our families are so open to life. Perhaps in the future we’ll need to change the words of our national anthem – “Poland, Europe has not perished until we are alive”.