IN THE CRADLE OF OUR LIFE FOR EVER
LIDIA DUDKIEWICZ, THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF OF NIEDZIELA
In the year 966 Chirst entered our history in order to stay in it for ever. Great thanksgiving for the 1050th anniversary of Poland Baptism took place between Ostrów Lednicki, Gniezno and Poznań – where the cradle of Poland is. The call of the jubilee celebration: ‘Where Baptism, hope is there’ is not being brought into the future. After all, baptism is new life which gives hope. During the thanksgiving the Holy Father Francis was spiritually with us, as his special emissary for the ceremony cardinal Pietro Parolin assured. On this occasion pope wrote a letter to Poles. He pointed to many reasons for glory. He noted the permanent relation of the Church with the Nation in history of Poland. He mentioned great Polish saints, leading Poles from baptismal water through history. As we officially know, the further sequence of thanksgiving for Poland Baptism is going to be held with the personal participation of pope Francis, who on 20 July 2016 is going to be at Jasna Góra to celebrate the national Holy Mass. A perfect intercessor of these events is Our Lady of Częstochowa, who in the copy of the Miraculous Image (travelling across Poland in peregrination), was accompanying the jubilee ceremonies, and later it returned to the visitation route.
From many words recently said in the cradle of the Polish country we conclude that in the country at the Vistula we breathe with Christianity. On ceremony days we were witnesses of the supernatural, joyful unity of bishops, priests working in parishes of whole Poland, convents, and lay believers, which showed in the stadium in Poznań that we won a spiritual match. We became mature in thinking that Poland will either belong to Christ or it will not exist at all. Now, being aware of it, we beg God for this gift of strong faith for whole Europe, especially in the situation when over the Old Continent there is a serious danger of being overwhelmed by Islam and the collapse of the Latin civilization. The Polish Republic had a role of a bulwark of Christianity at the times when religion was pointing to borders of civilization, and the term ‘European’ meant also ‘Christian’. Maybe also today Poland has such a mission to fulfill…St. John Paul II, like Fr. Piotr Skarga said on 2 June 1979 in Warsaw: ‘This old oak tree grew so much and wind did not knock it down, as its root is Christ’.
At present we live in times difficult for the Christians, but there are threads to look at the future with hope. After all, in Poland we have the President rooted in Christian values. In a message proclaimed on 15 April 2016 in Poznań, during the National Assembly, he said that the year 966 was ‘the most important censorship in our history’, and ceremonies in Gniezno and Poznań was treated as celebration of the 1050th ‘birth’ of our Nation and Homeland. He stated that ‘Poland is and will be faithful to its Christian heritage, for we have a tried out, strong fundament for the future in it’. Today we must thank for everybody thanks to whom Poland received baptism, beginning with Mieszko I and Dobrawa. After all baptism is inclusion in holiness of God. Baptism gave the beginning to everything in our national and individual life.
AA
„Niedziela” 17/2016