ON 27 SEPTEMBER 2015 JASNA GÓRA DEBATES BEGIN
LIDIA DUDKIEWICZ, THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF OF NIEDZIELA
We are going to experience a great prayer-studio event which is going to take place in the spiritual capital of Poland. Soon at Jasna Góra a nine-month time of preparation will begin for the jubilee of the 1050th anniversary of Poland baptism, referring to long-lasting tradition of Jasna Góra disputes in the Knights’ Hall. In this historical place on Sunday 27 September 2015 there will be the first debate from the series: ‘Jasna Góra report 2016’, being a reflection on realizing a program included in Jasna Góra Vows of the Nation and the spiritual state of the Nation. The purpose of the monthly meetings is a particular prayer for Homeland and elaborating a report about the state of faith and the spiritual state of the Polish nation. For 9 months debaters will be discussing texts of the Jasna Góra Vows of the Nation. Callings taken from there of other years of the Novena before the Poland Baptism Millennium which lasted from 1957 to 1966, will be topics of other monthly Jasna Góra debates. In the current issue of ‘Sunday’ we show that in the primate of Poland cardinal Stefan Wyszyński, there was growing awareness of providential mission of Jasna Góra and how strongly he used to persuade everyone that the Jasna Góra road is the most certain road which the Church and the Polish nation are supposed to follow. As we know, the Jasna Góra Vows of the Nation were being created at the time when their author – cardinal Stefan Wyszyński was in prison. At that time, in Poland there was the system of communist captivity, definitely hostile to the Church and the Nation. Analyzing what happened at Jasna Góra on 26 August 1956, on the historical day of paying Vows, cardinal Wyszyński stated: ‘It turned out that Jasna Góra is an inner bond of the Polish life, is a strength which grabs the heart deeply and holds the whole Nation in a humble and strong attitude of faithfulness to God, the Church and its hierarchy.
The Jasna Góra Vows of the Nation include a program of renewal connected with particular problems, which the nation encounters, although in new conditions. Fr. Marian Waligóra, the prior of Jasna Góra, invites everyone to big debates of Poles taking place in the Knights’ Hall publicly, in front of TV cameras and radio microphones. He notes that organizers want to tell the text of the Vows to others in a new language in order to appeal to the young man. Meetings are to be led by the famous journalist Jan Pośpieszalski, and will be attended by witnesses of history, as well as younger people, active on various frontiers of today’s struggles. So, it will be a significant meeting of the past from nearly 60 years ago with the present – difficult in a different way. The Vows of the Nation before the Millennium of Poland Baptism, celebrated in 1966, became a program of preparations for transformation of the spirit and social revolution. We hope that consideration of the text of the Vows at present, and sincere examination of conscience on their implement will serve to the individual and group purification, which - after going through the national confessional and renewal of baptismal promises on the 1050th anniversary of Poland baptism – will strengthen us so that we could carry issues of the difficult XXI century. Certainly, following the reliable Jasna Góra road of entrustment. St. John Paul II perceived the Jasna Góra Vows of the Nation as ‘a Polish charter of human rights’ also for our times.
AA
„Niedziela” 39/2015