Forging holiness
Lidia Dudkiewicz, The Editor-in-Chief of ‘Niedziela’
Feet are to walk– says a veteran of pilgrimages Fr. Stanisław Orzechowski, a famous ‘Orzech’. Certainly – it is best to use them on the way to eternity. Surely God gave us legs to go to Him. The purpose of our pilgrimage on Earth is achieving Heaven. In the ‘Sunday’ we note that Europe is forged in a march. We visit Jacob’s route leading to Santiago de Compostela, where there are relics of S. Jacob, considered as a patron of a fight with Islam. About 200 thousand people make pilgrimages to Santiago every years. One can meet various pilgrims on this pilgrimage route. One of the most popular routes – a French Road of S. Jacob, which begins at the feet of the Pyrenees, on the border of Spain and France – was a pilgrimage route of the Belgium royal couple this summer: Philip I and his wife Matylda and their children and friends. Media are trying to be everywhere, so via them information about the royal pilgrimage was made public. As a Spanish journal ‘El Paris’ informed, it had not been the first time since the royal couple had made their pilgrimage. Whereas the ‘Sunday’ registered information that footballers of the Spanish football representation meet in Santiago de Compostela every time before their important match.
Religiousness is our genetic code, our Polish and European DNA. Surely, testimonies showing beautiful life close to God are helpful in uncovering this regularity. And if Christ is publicly testified by famous people, they convince others of life in God. Its example is Zlatko Dalic – a trainer of the Croatian football team which gained the title of the vice-champion of the world during this year’s World Cup in Russia. The Croatian coach publicly speaks about his friendship with Christ. ‘Everything that I have achieved so far in my professional and personal life, I owe not myself but God’ – this is an answer he often gives to questions asked to him about a recipe for success. Certainly, he also emphasizes that entrusting everything to God and cooperation with Him do not let one resign from demanding trainings.
He always has a rosary in his pocket and he tries to begin every match or training with saying at least one rosary mystery. He does not imagine Sunday without Eucharist. ‘This is Sunday Holy Mass which keeps me alive’ – he explains. Forging holiness at our times, when there are attempts to build the world without God, is surely supported by examples of contemporary saints taken from the ordinary life. Soon the first ‘saint fiancee’ will join the saints in the Catholic Church – an Italian woman Alessandra Sabattini, who in 1984 at the age of only 23 years died because of injuries after a car crash. She was hit by a car before the eyes of her fiancé, when they were going for a meeting in their church group, in which they had been getting prepared for missions in Africa. They had planned their journey soon after their wedding. Recently via TV2000 a testimony of a man has been given, who was miraculously healed through intercession of Alessandra. This is another example that saints are among us and that holiness is for everybody. And a road to sanctification can be a pilgrimage. Here routes to Jasna Góra are walked along, and we are going to experience the pilgrimage summit – as every year – on 15 and 26 August. So, it is worth leaving everything and set off in order to use our feet for a pilgrimage and be close to God.
Translated by Aneta Amrozik
Niedziela 29/2018 (22 VII 2018)