WORDS OF THE CARER OF POLISH DIASPORA TO POLES ALL OVER THE WORLD
‘I would like to greet you very cordially and express my unity with you staying abroad for a temporary or permanent time, far away from our Homeland, and your relatives’ – bishop Wieslaw Lechowicz, the delegate of the Polish Episcopate for pastoral ministry of Polish emigration, wrote in his letter to Polish Diaspora on the occasion of Christmas.
According to bishop Wieslaw Lechowicz, Christmas is an excellent occasion to confirm this unity, assuring about prayer coming from the Church in Poland. ‘I also pronounce words of warm thanks towards priests, nuns and laymen, being engaged in pastoral ministry among Polish emigrants – he wrote. – Thanks to Your love and evangelization responsibility, many our compatriots experience atmosphere of home and acceptance in the community of the Church, which allows them to survive the difficult time of integration in the new environment. Whereas, thanks to Your pastoral ministry, everybody can worship God with their hearts filled in with faith according to the Polish Christian tradition’. The bishop also reminded emigrants that this year’s Christmas is in the pastoral year which in Poland is being experienced in the spirit of Lord Jesus’ call: ‘Convert yourselves and believe in Gospel!’ (Mk 1.15). This conversion is also a return to the beginning, that is, going towards the One, ‘in whom we live, move and exist’ (see the Acts of Apostles 17.28). ‘So, let it happen so in Your personal and family life. Talk to God, and He will fulfill every moment of Your life with liberating and loving presence’ – he encouraged, reminding that in the universal Church, the current year had been announced as the Year of Consecrated Life by pope Francis.
‘Dear Brothers and Nuns, appreciating Your role in the life of the Church and in the environment of Polish emigration, I wish You a lot of joy and satisfaction taken from a faithful testimony to the example of Jesus and sacrificial serving to our compatriots, and a lot of understanding and friendliness from those among whom and for whom you devote your life’.
This year’s Christmas – as bishop Lechowicz reminded – is the first one to take place after canonization of John Paul II, which - in his opinion- should be an additional source of joy. ‘Dear Compatriots, Brothers and Sisters, please, take these wishes, coming from heart and supported by a prayer and pastoral blessing! May God’s blessing accompany you during Christmas and every day of the new year’ – he said.
The whole Christmas-New year letter of bishop Wiesław Lechowicz, addressed to Poles spread all over the world, can be found on the portal of ‘Niedziela’: www.niedziela.pl in the tab designed for Polish Diaspora.
AA
„Niedziela” 51-52/2014